Here Without You, Baby
by Sci-Fi Raptor
Summary: AU: Crass is back, and he's come with a vengeance. Don't miss this exciting sequel! sequel to Amy's Firts Kiss
1. Chapter One: Insurrection

Here Without You, Baby  
  
Chapter One: Insurrection  
  
By: Sci-Fi Raptor  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior  
  
Here are all the people I have to thank:  
  
I have to thank Channel Zi for its Zoid stats, Jeff Meier of Z3Roadster.com for the picture of that hot Z3Roadster from Amy's First Kiss, Mike Perry of Kent.net/robotech, Edward High of High Gallery, Michael of the Explorer Corps, Paul from Ral Partha Europe Ltd, Julie for being a great hostess, and of course, the readers! Now on to the show…  
  
***  
  
"On count one of treason, we find you… guilty. On count two of disobeying NASAADSR regulations, we find you… guilty. For these charges, you will be sent to the prison asteroid for life."  
  
Hi. It's me, Crass. And as you can see, I was just judged.  
  
The MP's took the chained Crass Fisheye to the awaiting fold space transport to send him to the prison block; the military court started its case on another NASAADSR pilot caught for treason.  
  
You're probably wondering how I managed to get caught so soon after meeting the Xi'an. Well, I purposely did it.  
  
The transport was filled with nineteen other prisoners, and he was cuffed to his seat. In a few seconds, the transport counted down.  
  
Well, when the Xi'an saved Amy Rose and I, they also got hold of CHOAM. It was decided that I would have a covert mission on Zi to try to emancipate it, but I needed men to run my ship.  
  
The transport soon arrived in the Crab Nebula and docked on a 5,000-kilometer wide asteroid. The prisoners were escorted to the de-con and taken to their cells.  
  
So I told them that I would get caught and go the Gulag, a prison where a bunch of people I had known had gone because they said that the government was actually taking over other worlds instead of helping them (as I found out not too long ago).  
  
Crass was given a duty roster and an extra jumpsuit for when he would clean the one he was wearing.  
  
So I figured I was bound to find someone that could help me there, and I told my plan to the Xi'an. When Amy found out, she begged me not to go, but I had to. Even though there was no assurance that I would live long enough to get to the prison, I knew that I couldn't do anything with just Amy and I; the Xi'an couldn't operate it either, so I had to have humans on board.  
  
My cellmate was a red haired, stocky white person. His accent betrayed his origin.  
  
"Me name's Jonathan Burke. What's yours?" the Irishmen said, offering his hand.  
  
"Hi. My name is Crass. Crass Fisheye."  
  
***  
  
Our operation will be known as Meteora, and it will be a deep surgical covert operation on Zi. We will have my Herculean X2 and a Primus class drop ship. My Herculean X2 had a partial lance of HEV's, namely, a Jenner IIC (light recon), Kodiak (heavy assault), Diashi (heavy assault), Mad Cat (medium assault with limited flight capability), a Harrier IIC (the modern version of the Harrier. It has space flight capabilities), and an ATT (amphibious troop transport. It is capable of carrying one HEV, and up to eight people). The Primus class drop ship is a new drop ship with some of the newest HEV's; it was salvage that the Xi'an had managed to get their hands on from a recent battle. The new HEV's are hybrids of Zoidian chassis and Terran weaponry. The drop ship also had a lance consisting of two Rev Raptors, two Command Wolf's, one Liger X, two Hammer Heads, two Iron Kongs, and three Storm Sworders. The Drop Ship was capable of carrying more, but most of the HEV's were damaged beyond repair. All of them had their weapons, armor and sensors replaced by Terran stock. The only thing they kept were the CPC's.  
  
We would act as a unit, with me at command. We would attack, destroy or disable strategic locations that the Terran's set up, and emancipate as many people as we could.  
  
My first operation, like I said before, was to get recruits. I would need about ten people, including myself. Any more, and it would bee too crowded, any less and I'd be short handed. And they couldn't be anyone. There were reasons why people got sent here, so I would have to pay close attention to people of interest. I would need people that were specialized in certain things to let the operation run smoothly, and have loyal followers; namely, those who really knew what our people were doing.  
  
I spent about two weeks there before I had a good idea of whom I wanted. My cellmate Jonathan Burke and brunette named Seymour "Buzz" McAllen were very good technicians that could fix anything, and were very knowledgeable about programming, Jonathan specializing in AI. A brunette named Joanna Thomson was a strategist that served in four tours, and knew everything there was to know about tactics. A French brunette named Renee Armand was a highly recognized medic. A blonde named James Lovell was a domineering man that was a master in many forms of hand-to-hand combat, and many of the other exotic arts. A fiery redhead named Molly Bialy was a demolitions specialist, and was also a highly skilled engineer. Mark Fitzgerald was an ace pilot who could fly anything as fast as a fighter to anything as big as a mother ship. And finally, a blonde named Catherine McNeil, an ace HEV/HES specialist, just like me. All of them had pretty exceptional skills.  
  
I covertly went about trying to see if they were interested in the hypothetical situation if it were to happen, and all were very quick to enlist. In another week, I was ready to get us outta there.  
  
***  
  
Prison Block Space Port  
  
Asteroid A10022  
  
Crab Nebula  
  
8:00 AM local  
  
It was going to look like any routine transfer to the nearby mining site. I pulled some strings and I managed to get my whole crew into the same "boat". We would all act as if nothing was different, and the guards would send us on our way. And then the Xi'an came. A whole glisork of them took over the ship after a brutal, but lopsided battle for control. Jonathan passed out. Soon the crew was ejected from the shuttle (with their space suits on) and Gerald piloted the shuttle to an awaiting Isnor. We docked with it, and the Xi'an carrier transported us to our temporary base.  
  
***  
  
Hammer Temporary HQ  
  
Xi'an Territories  
  
It took me a while to reassure them that the Xi'an weren't gonna kill us. They were still agitated, but when they saw Amy come in, they finally calmed down. The glisork had gone back to their Home World, and left us to ourselves. One by one, the rag-tag crew vacated the shuttle and made their way to our makeshift HQ. When everyone got there, and were seated, all hell broke loose.  
  
Everyone wanted to know what was going on, why were they there, and most importantly, why were the Xi'an there?  
  
So I told them. They were chosen to form an elite group whose mission was to liberate a world from Terran occupation. They were there because they were the best of the best, and they saw what Terran forces did. And then I gave them the history of the Xi'an. Well… I was about to, but gave it to Amy, since I still didn't completely believe them. Maybe it was just because of all that training.  
  
When it was over, I got everyone to introduce him or herself. One by one, they all gave their name, occupation and a little about their story. When the formalities were over, I gave everyone their jobs. The techs would check through the fixed Primus class Drop Ship and my Herculean X2 (which the Xi'an were kind enough to upgrade its weapons and armor to their class, since their naval class weaponry was so much better than ours) and all the HEV's. I told Renee to go through her equipment and mess around with it. I gave Joanna detailed maps and Intel of all the intended operation sites, and a list of what had to be done. I showed Molly where the chemical storage was. I told Mark to get used to the Drop Ship. I told James to get a program ready that would teach us basic hand-to-hand concepts. And Catherine, Amy and I… we just waited.  
  
"Well…" Catherine started.  
  
"We're finally gonna get my planet back." Amy stated.  
  
"Your planet?"  
  
"Yeah. I was born on Zi."  
  
"Wait, you're not Terran???"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"So… you're like… an alien!?"  
  
"I guess… but to me, you guys are the aliens."  
  
"Hmmm"  
  
"I'm going to see how the techs are doing…" I said, and left the two to converse.  
  
The techs at this point were going through the Herculean X2, and stopped when they saw me.  
  
"How's it going?"  
  
"Its good. It's amazing what Xi'an technology can do. They were even nice enough to give us a psionic pulse drive in case our sub-light engines didn't work."  
  
"Too nice, if you ask me…" I replied.  
  
"Well. There was something else we found." Seymour said.  
  
"Hm?"  
  
"Lets just show him." Jonathan said. They quickly went to the internal circuitry, and showed me a glowing module.  
  
"This is a Xi'an tracker. Once we turn on the reactor, this will turn on, and the Xi'an will know everything that we do or say."  
  
"I expected s much…"  
  
"Do you want us to get rid of it?"  
  
"No. Its probably somehow tied into the ship. Put something on it so that we can fry it if we need to. I don't wanna upset the Xi'an; not yet."  
  
"Yessir" they said, and scampered back to their jobs.  
  
Seeing that I left our ships and HEV's in good hands, I went to Molly to see how she fared.  
  
"Hi Molly!" I said loud enough to be heard over her lab equipment.  
  
"SHHH!!!" she scolded. She came up to me and said that if I spoke too loud, the chemicals might spontaneously explode. I got nervous and left her. She was a talented demolitioner… nothing I could really do.  
  
I then went to Joanna to see how she was doing. Surprisingly, she was on the floor, cross-legged, with maps and reports all around her.  
  
"Hi!" I said.  
  
"I can't believe you guys had so much Intel. It's perfect. We can go in here and take that out…" she said, in a world of her own.  
  
"Oooookay." I said and left her. I saw the Drop Ship flying in the air, so I assumed Mark was doing fine. Seeing that everything was running smoothly, I went back to Amy and Catherine.  
  
"Is not…"  
  
"Is too"  
  
"Just see the way he… oh, hi Crass!" Catherine said mid-sentence.  
  
"Who's what?" I asked.  
  
Amy was about to say something, but Catherine was on top of her in a second, and covered her mouth.  
  
"Nothing, no one. Right Amy?" she said, and squeezed on her for reinforcement.  
  
"Uh huh." She nodded.  
  
"Girls are so weird sometimes…" I thought out loud.  
  
"What! I'm not a girl!" Catherine said, offended.  
  
"You're right, you're probably forty." I said to the teenager. Her face turned red, and basically jumped on me.  
  
With great power… I thought as I wrestled her off.  
  
Comes great responsibility I thought again, keeping myself from hurting her. I saw Amy leave out of the corner of my eye.  
  
***  
  
Well? What do you think? Slow start? Dull start? Should I just not continue the sequel? I hope you guys liked it, since I had quite a few people really asking for it (don't worry, things really speed up next chapter).  
  
Um… I'm on a much farther chapter now, so any suggestions will probably be manifested mucho más adelante…  
  
[Later]  
  
Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	2. Chapter Two: Meteora

Here Without You, Baby…

Chapter Two: Meteora

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior

***

But my dreams they aren't as empty  
As my conscious seems to be  
I have hours, only lonely  
My love is vengeance  
That's never free  
No one knows what its like  
To feel these feelings  
Like I do, and I blame you!  
No one bites back as hard  
On their anger  
None of my pain woe  
Can show through

-Limp Bizkit (Behind Blue Eyes)

***

            A long time ago, on Terra, there was a horrible war that was known as World War II. It was known as the war to end all wars. There was a very evil genius that went around making millions die in death camps. When the victors finally set the people free, they were met with a horrible site; death and decay wherever they turned. People dying or already dead were on their beds. It was said that to end the war, they had to use a horrible weapon that killed a lot of people. Many years after the war a lot of people thought they were all a hoax. That all those millions who died were just a bunch of make-believe statistics.

            Why do I bring that up? Well, it's kind of like what we're going through right now. Our government is subjugating billions of people and aliens and no one knows about it. And its all General Molotov's doing. We did have negotiations with other races and form alliances. But when he became general, he made us conquer those planets. And he made the death camps.

            We were ready in less then a month. We would have left earlier, but Jonathan had to build something. I have no idea why, and Seymour  is as clueless as I am. But I let him finish it, and we were all set. James Lovell had retrained everyone with using the HES, and gave everyone a personal workout program to keep us at our peak. The techs said that all ships and HEV's were ready, and everyone was assigned one. Molly made 3 tons of high explosives…

            We took everything with us, since no one else was going to need the base. We packed it up and put it in our storage. My Herculean X2 went inside the Drop Ship, and we set off for launch. In a few minutes, we were back in Zi's solar system.

            The reason why I called it Operation Meteora was because, when we would enter Zi's atmosphere, we would be inside a large asteroid that would slam into an area near where we'd make our base. We chose to hit a mountain because we could then fly to a nearby desert and bury ourselves there, near an ore deposit. We would need it for CHOAM and the Drop Ship to be able to make repairs.

            "Did you find one yet?" I asked Mark. We were both in the Drop Ship's bridge, and Mark was looking for an asteroid large enough for us to fit the Drop Ship in. After a few hours of searching, we found an asteroid large enough, somewhere in the solar system's asteroid belt. We used the Xi'an's psionic thrusters to get to it, just in case there were any Terran scouts in the area. In about three hours, the Drop Ship reached it, and we used the Drop Ship's weapons to make a hole to lodge the Drop Ship in. In fourteen hours, our excavation was complete, and the Drop Ship was inside the asteroid.

            "I just realized something" Joanna suddenly said. Everyone was in the lounge of the Drop Ship, waiting for us to start the operation.

            "What?" I asked.

            "We have two ships here, but one doesn't have a name."

            "So?" I said. Its not like a name means anything.

            "Well, in naval tradition, its bad luck not to name your ship."

            "Really?" I said dispassionately.

            "Any suggestions?" Amy said.

            "Pegasus!" Jonathan said

            "Lightning." Seymour  said.

            "Jesus Fucking Christ!" James swore.

            "Don't you think that's a bit vulgar?" Amy said. He stood up and moved away from where he was sitting.

            "I think I felt something where I was sitting." He said, regaining his composure.

            "Oh…"

            "What do you think Crass?" Amy asked me.

            "Huh?" 

-_-;      "What do you think we should call it?" she asked again.

            "… Hammer." I said simply, and left.

            "Hammer?" Mark repeated. I had left by then, so I didn't hear him say it.

            "Why Hammer?"

***

Somewhere in Zi's solar system

Unknown asteroid

2 hours Before Impact

            "I christen thee, Hammer" Amy said, breaking a bottle of wine on the hull of the Drop Ship. We were all outside, standing on the transport we stole from the prison, doing some naming ceremony Joanna dug up. As captain and commander of the ship and mission, I had the final word with the naming, and I left it as _Hammer_.

            The bottle shattered, and the contents sprayed everywhere, quickly turning into hundreds of spheres of translucent yellow liquid. We all went back into the transport, and docked back inside the _Hammer_. Soon, the ship started to violently shake as we entered the atmosphere. When Mark thought we were out of their radar's range, we ejected out of the asteroid and headed to our designated base area.

            "Is our cloak still working?" I asked Mark while he made us descend even more.

            "Yeah, they'll never see us coming." He replied, realizing as we slowed down to cruise speed. Suddenly alarms went off.

            "What's going on?" I queried the AI.

            An exterior camera feed was opened on the screen, and I could see our bay doors opening.

            "Someone is attempting to leave the ship with one of the Storm Sworders."

            "We have some more bad news" Mark reported.

            "What now?" I said urgently.

            "I just detected some enemy contacts. Someone just gave us away."

            "Dammit" I said. "Try to keep them off of us." I ran out of the room and patched into Caroline with our CORE modules.

            "Caroline. I need you and someone else to take a Storm Sworder and the Harrier out and keep those enemies off our tail.

            "What enemies? What's going on?"

            "Patch into CHOAM, it'll tell you everything." I said, as I hurriedly entered the docking bay. I had to struggle to keep the wind from ejecting me from the _Hammer_.

            "Actually, CHOAM doesn't work right now…" Seymour  told me.

            "Why not?" I yelled at him through the CORE module.

            "Well, you told me to scan it just in case the Xi'an tampered with it, and delete the _NASAADSR_ modules from it."

            "Then why didn't you finish it?"

            "…sorry"

            "Dammit. Just patch into Mark and ask him what's going on." I said, as I undocked the Storm Sworder and left the _Hammer_, on an intercept course with the other Storm Sworder. He had a definite lead on me, but the pilot didn't know how to go to the Storm Sworder's max speed, Mach 3.2.

            "Amy. Besides me, Catherine and whoever else left with her, who's missing?"

            "Well, your out there, Catherine is in the Storm Sworder and I'm in the Harrier-"

            "What? Go back to the Hammer and let someone else fly it!"

            "Why? Because I'm too weak?"

            "…"

            "Well, anyway, the only other person missing is Jonathan."

            "Dammit. Why didn't I think that we'd have a mole onboard!" I said, cursing myself. I cut off all communication and went into passive radar to keep Jonathan from realizing I was there. I soon caught up to him, and when I was in range, I fired both my Xi'an ectoplasmic inducers. I scored hits on his left wing and on his tail. The drag caused by the ruptures on his flight surfaces made him suddenly corkscrew left. I slowed down, and fired at his exposed cockpit.

            Lucky for him, a sudden thermal flipped him around, and I hit his flight pack instead. He lost control, and had to eject. But I fired once more.

***

            When I came back to the _Hammer_, I saw dozens of Zabats surrounding it. Catherine and Amy did their best to take as many as they could, but the _Hammer_'s defensives did most of the work.

            "How many more left?" I demanded as I got within range and sliced a few Zabats with the Storm Sworder's head spike.

            "Thirty left" Joanna reported.

            "Damn" I said to myself and burned another pair of Zabats with plasma. The area of contact made an outline of energy as it evaporated.

            Amy and Catherine were covering Mark's blind spots, so I jetted there as quickly as I could. The three of us took out about half of them before they decided it was time to retreat.

            "What are you waiting for?" I said in a rage as I chased after them.

            "What are you talking about?" Amy said.

            "If we let them get away, they'll tell them where we're headed!" I said, and blasted them all to hell. Catherine and Amy just waited as I made short work of them. Then I went for the pilots.

            "Crass! What are you doing!!!" Amy screamed as I took out two pilots.

            "What I did to Jonathan!" I yelled back, and got ready for my second run. Before I could go though, the Harrier fired missile at me, forcing me to disengage.

            "What the hell are you doing!" I said angrily.

            "Crass, we're here to save people, not become them." She pleaded. I fired at her.

            "What the hell!!!" Catherine said, and grabbed my Storm Sworder. "Get a hold of yourself, _commander_"

            "Get off of me. I'm gonna kill everyone of them!" I raged, and drove my head spike into her Storm Sworder's belly. She let go, and I went for the helpless Terrans. 

"Crass! No!" I heard Amy say. I felt an impact on my aft, and then I was losing altitude. I looked at my damage indicator, and saw that my thrusters were gone, and there were internal explosions racking the HEV. I pulled the ejection chord, but the cockpit exploded as I did it. The chute came out, and I felt the sudden force of it decelerating me. I looked at the hunk of metal that was my HEV, and saw it explode. Shrapnel flew everywhere, and I was lucky enough to turn my head when I did, because a hunk of rubber was headed right for me. I felt a pressure on the back of my head and everything went black.

***

In case anyone gets confused with who's who, I have a list of the team roster here for clarity:

Crass Fisheye- Leader

Amy Rose- Second in command

Jonathan Burke- technician

Seymour "Buzz" McAllen- technician

Joanna Thomson- strategist

Renee Armand- medic

James Lovell- hand-to-hand specialist

Molly Bialy- demolitionist

Mark Fitzgerald- pilot

Catherine McNeil- HEV/HES specialist

[Arigato and goodnite]

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	3. Chapter Three: Goodbye, My Love

Here Without You, Baby 

Chapter Three: Goodbye, My Love

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior

***

I'm here without you baby but your still on my lonely mind  
I think about you baby and I dream about you all the time  
I'm here without you baby but your still with me in my dreams  
And tonight, there's only you and me

3 Doors Down (Here Without You)

***

            I had to stop him. Even though they were the ones subjugating my people, I couldn't just let him kill them. So I stopped him; I fired my Gauss Rifles at his flight pack, and incapacitated him. Smoke started pouring out of it, and he lost altitude quickly. I went on an intercept path to where his ejection pod should have ejected to, to get him out of there as quickly as I could. I really didn't care about how mad he'd get at me. But the cockpit exploded.

            "CRASS!!!" I screamed, fearing the worst. I soon calmed down when I saw the ejection pod. But the Storm Sworder exploded and something flew out of it and hit him. It tore through his parachute, and he plummeted down.

            Instantly, I swooped down to try to catch him, and I was right next to him. His CORE module reported that he was knocked out and his heart was beating irregularly. I tried to get him into my cargo bay, but a sudden thermal rocketed my Harrier far away from him. By the time I got control back, he was gone, and his CORE module had stopped transmitting.

***

            Amy just kept on going down, frantically scanning the ground in hopes that Crass had somehow made it. I had to grab her with my talons to force her to level off before she crashed into the ground. Then we headed back to the _Hammer_. When we entered the bay and left our cockpits, she shot me a cold look. Before I could say anything, Renee came in and told us to go to the lounge. Amy went there, ignoring me the whole way.

***

            How could she? I was so close. I was just about to find him when she pulled me out.

            Mark had everyone go to the lounge so we could figure out what to do, even though it was obvious.

            "We have to find a new place to touch down." Mark said. "We have to assume that Jonathan told the Terrans about our plans. Seymour, reprogram all our security modules and homing beacons. As long as they stay the same, we'll be vulnerable to infiltration. Joanna, where else can we land?"

            "Hey, we have to send someone to find Crass." I said.

            "That's impossible. If we go back, they'll be on top of us."

            "Are you saying that we're gonna just leave him there?"

            "With all due respect, I don't think there's anyone to find."

            I looked at him in disbelief. How could he? How could he possibly say something like that? Crass went through a hell of a lot worse and still made it. _He was knocked out and his heart was beating irregularly._ I had to leave; I was on the verge of breaking down, and them seeing me couldn't make it any better.

            I stormed out of there and went to my room. I sat on my bed and started bawling. Catherine came in a few minutes later and sat next to me, trying her best to comfort me. We sat there, crying…

***

            It was four weeks since the incident. Amy was second in command, but Joanna took over when we determined that Amy wasn't fit to command; she's been holed up in her room ever since. We found another ore deposit that we could harvest, and hid the _Hammer_ inside large cavern near it. We would use the Herculean X2 as our transport ship when we did our missions, and the _Hammer _would stay there, as a mobile base. We unpacked the HQ we had from the asteroid as our permanent base.

            "This is our primary objective." Joanna said, as she pointed to a warehouse in a huge industrial complex. "This is the primary HEV production plant of this region. Taking it out will seriously cripple their forces, and will make it easier to liberate the Northeastern Gulag.

            "We will be divided into two teams, the distracters and the demolishers. Catherine will lead two of us and keep base defenses focused on us, while Molly and two others will infiltrate the base and set the explosives. Mark will pilot the _X_. When they are out of the base, the distracters will go here," she said, pointing to a forest "and lay low. The _X_ will be waiting nearby to extract. Any questions?"

            "Yes." Amy said. Everyone was surprised by her appearance. "There's only seven people in the operation, but there's eight of us."

            "Well… I thought-"

            "That I'd just stay here and mope around. No… Crass wouldn't want that." She said darkly. Then she somehow brightened up. "And this is my planet anyway. I can't let you guys have all the credit."

            "Alright." Joanna said, and quickly regained her composure. "Molly and I have decided that Molly, James and Renee will be on the demolition team. Everyone else is with Catherine."

            No one objected, and the group dispersed the females gave Amy words of comfort while the guys stood there uncomfortable. Soon, the team was inside the _X_, and waiting deployment.

***

            No one could agree on a name for the Herculean X2, and since there wasn't any commander there technically, no one had the final word. So everyone just called it the _X_. For this mission, they would need fast but powerful platforms, so the Mad Cat, the Liger _X_, and the pair Command Wolfs would be used for the mission. Catherine had the Liger, Joanna had the Mad Cat, and Amy and Seymour had the Command Wolfs. The demolition team would use a light jeep to get as close to the base as possible.

            Mark quickly approached the complex, and landed the cloaked _X_ near the front entrance. As soon as the bay doors opened, alarms went off and defenders activated. The Liger came out first, and tried to focus attention away from the vulnerable HEV's leaving the _X_. As soon as the last one got off, the _X_ lifted off with its bay doors still open. It headed towards the extraction point, but kept low. The complex was between the _X_ and forest, so it quickly flew past it, and did a low run so that the jeep could dart out of the closing bay doors. Momentarily, the _X_ was completely out of sensor range and cloaked, and landed at the designated extraction point. Then it shut down all systems to evade pursuit; they were completely alone.

            Molly's team quickly arrived at a back entrance to the complex, and quickly got in. They turned on their night-vision goggles, and stalked from one building to another. Their job was to take the factory out, not kill people, so they tried to keep themselves as hidden as possible, shooting people with their silenced submachine guns only when necessary. They finally entered the factory, with the battle raging in the background.

***

            The complex was heavily defended. Hidden turrets popped out of nowhere and Gauss Rifle slugs were flying all over the place. To add to that, there was an army of Godoses, relentlessly attacking.

            They worked in pairs, Catherine and Amy, and Joanna and Seymour. The more powerful HEV's attacked a large group, while the Command Wolfs finished off the remains.

            The reason why they kept the original HEV's was because even though they weren't as fast as the hybrid HEV's, they had more powerful weapons. This was because the Zoids had less space, and less powerful versions of the Terran's weapons were used.

            While Catherine was taking care of a group of Godos that were attacking them, Amy sniped out a few of those Gauss turrets with her own Gauss Rifle. They were lightly armored, and she quickly took out most of them; Seymour decided to help. 

Joanna relentlessly pounded the Godos with her PPC's and Large Lasers. Small and lightly armed, most of them succumbed immediately. In a few more minutes of insanity, the Godos and most permanent base defenders were wiped out.

"That's the last of them." Catherine said as she electrocuted a bunch of Godos with her electromagnetic dischargers. 

"Don't speak so soon." Joanna commented as she focused their attention to a new group of enemies heading for them. There were four Red Horns and two Blade Ligers.

"Shit!" Seymour said as two Red Horns fired their chain guns at him. Amy dodged as the other two did the same. Joanna locked onto one Blade Liger and fired a long stream of LRM's at it, while Catherine charged at the other, weapons blazing.

***

            "That's the last of them." Renee said, coming back empty handed. Molly had told them what strategic spots to put the bombs so that it would cause maximum damage.

            "Lets roll." James said as he led the group away. No sooner had he said that, a platoon stumbled upon them.

            "Hey you! Stop right there!" their leader said. James instantly took over and fired his silenced submachine gun at them; Molly and Renee did the same. The firefight ensued from at least five minutes, until James and the girls realized they were wasting ammo that they didn't have much of the start with.

            "Dammit!" James said. He got the girls attention and told them to cover him. He took out a bunch of flash grenades and threw them at the enemy fire squad. They all covered their eyes and waited for the flash to end. Within seconds, they started taking an alternative route away from there.

            But one of the people from the fire squad had managed to have his eyes closed, and got a lucky shot at James. He instantly ended his life, and staggered to keep up with the girls. Renee noticed the staggering hulk, and gave him support, followed by Molly. They soon made it to the Jeep and got the hell outta there.

            Molly drove while Renee dressed James' wound.

            "Ahh!" he moaned in pain when she put on the anti-septic

            "Come on you big baby" Renee smirked as she applied the salve.

            When they were safely out of range, the set off the remote detonators, and fireworks went off…

***

            Amy and Seymour had managed not to get damaged, and took out two of the four Red Horns. Joanna, though, had extensive damage to her shoulder pod, and was missing an arm. Catherine had to retreat from the fighting for a little bit to let her Zoid cool down. Luckily, one Blade Liger was scrap, while the other tried to take out Joanna.

            Suddenly, the earth shook, and a bright flash came from the complex. The enemy hesitated momentarily, and the distracters quickly took their cue to leave; they rushed away from the battlefield.

            They circumvented the base, and entered the forest. They turned off their active radar, and followed their nav-points to the extraction point. When they reached it, they saw the shutdown _X_ with its bay doors open. The jeep was parked inside the _X_, and they all entered it as quickly as they could. The _X_ rapidly initiated its systems and cloaked. It touched off, and they finally headed back home.

***

AH!!! Crass is gone. Kaput. He's going to meet his creator…

Thanks for reading! And I'd really like some feedback because I want to know what you guys think of the sequel so far, and ideas are always appreciated.

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 

[Nite]


	4. Chapter Four: Rogues

Here Without You, Baby 

Chapter Four: Rogues

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior 

Note: this chapter spans about six to eight months from when the group first landed on Zi (last chapter). It starts two hours after they first entered Zi's atmosphere.

~

[Two hours after start of operation Meteora]

            A gleaming silver point streamed across the desert, headed to a big green mass. The big green mass had patches or yellow and red, and long black lines reached for the sky. As the silver bullet closed the distance between it and the green patch, something invisible stole away high in the air.

            "Delta Squadron was taken down in the Inner Forest. Our orders are to bail out any survivors," said the captain as the twin-engine Thrust Master made its way to the forest. "We have been warned that there may still be hostiles in the area, so be careful."

            The troop transport reached the forest entrance and slowly landed onto a clearing nearby. The troops stepped out of the vehicle and activated their CORE modules, initiating their scout mode. They ignited their jetpacks and shot into the maze that was the forest.

            "Marlene!" the commander beckoned before she was out of radio range.

            "Yes Commander?"

            "Try not to shoot our guys this time?"

            "Sure, Commander," the blonde haired young lady said, corkscrewing into darkness.

            _Damn that Marlene…I would court martial her by now if she wasn't so good._

            Marlene was feeling very giddy that day. She spun, did loop de loops and other acrobatic movements. She loved to fly, that's the only reason she was part of the HES corps. True, she was the best her school had to offer, but she didn't really like the military. She liked… watermelons. Big, juicy watermelons. Especially the ones with the seeds still in them, since they were usually sweeter then the ones without seeds. She didn't know why, but that didn't matter. As long as she had her big slices of Swiss Cheese. Large white slices with big holes in them.

            It seemed like coincidence that she saw it. The parachute, I mean. It was tangled up in the trees, large holes all over it. She slowly approached it, scanning it for hostiles. All she found was a pilot suspended in the air by the parachutes lines. Her computer couldn't register if it was hostile or friendly since his face was turned away from her, but she could tell he needed help. She burned a little more with her attitude jets and hovered right below him.

            "Hey, you still alive?" Marlene asked poking his back. She was hoping that the wounds on his head would have killed him. Then she could go back to flying. And fantasizing about watermelons and Swiss Cheese.

            "Ugh…"

            _Damn…_she thought. _Now I can't fly anymore. But I could just leave him here, pretend I didn't see him._ Suddenly, a branch broke and he fell down, repositioned so that he was suspended right in front of her. A hole in the foliage happened to let the sunlight filter through so she could see his face clearly. _Subject not hostile._ Her tactical computer responded. His eyes fluttered open.

            _Ba-dump_

            "Hello," he said casually.

            "Hello," she said back. As if meeting a person suspended in the air by parachute lines and hovering in front of them with an HES on was normal. _What's going on?_

            "Who are you?"

            _Ba-dump_

            "My name is Marlene, what's yours?" she asked curiously. _Why do I feel so weird all of a sudden?_

            "My name is Victor," he said. His eye color was fluctuating between the aquamarine of a Class 4 HES and the green of his own eyes. The fluctuating quickly lessened and they remained green. His eyelids fluttered for a few seconds, and he locked eyes with her for a moment. Then he passed out.

~

            Joanna had located a lot of radio traffic somewhere in the far northwest. At first she didn't think much of it, but her intelligence showed her that there was a lot of movement of people and supplies going to and from a certain facility in that general direction. So she devised a mission to see what was going on there.

            It would be simple, the _X _would drop a HEV near the facility to provide line of sight. Then the _X_ would fly around taking pictures. Of course the use of a HEV would get them caught in a short amount of time, so it would be a flash op. Mark would fly the _X_ as usual and Catherine would pilot the Liger X. Joanna would stay in the _X_ and process the pictures as they were taken to asses the importance of the facility.

            The operation started at 0100 hours. Mark made a clean drop off and Catherine successfully hid from the enemy. She engaged her laser-sight and waited for the mission to end. At 0115 hours, the _X_ was at low flight altitude and taking enhanced night images. At 0125 hours, the laser sight was spotted and Catherine was being chased after.

            The defenders were like nothing they expected. A whole _regiment_ of Kodiaks. Before Catherine could radio in her situation, she was hit by a NARC beacon and all the Kodiaks were locked onto her. She ran. Ran like hell. The Kodiaks fired volley after volley of Swarm LRM missiles, making potholes wherever they landed; including on the Liger. They also fired shell after shell from their autocannons and melted slabs of her armor off with their deadly assortment of lasers. Finally, one of the Kodiaks, a red one, fired ball after blue ball of PPC emissions at her.

            Her comms were out, but Mark could tell that the Terrans had found Catherine once he could see the fireworks groundside. It was gruesome. Energy and light from a 200-meter wide formation was concentrating on a single point, Catherine and the Liger X. Mark told Joanna to strap in and activated the shields. He locked onto as many Kodiaks as he could, and fired all the weapons simultaneously.

            The cloak went down and the base got them on radar. Underground AA batteries popped out and fired at the _X_. But Mark had done all he had to. He distracted the Kodiak regiment enough for Catherine to make substantial distance as they fired on the _X_. He struggled to stay out of the base's and Kodiaks line of fire and finally landed at the extract, bay doors already open. Catherine jumped in just as Mark touched off. And not too soon. A spilt second later, four PPC emissions and seven Gauss rifle slugs converged where he had landed. He quickly reactivated the cloak and flew away as quickly as he could.

            When they reached their base of operations, Mark just landed. Seymour and James rushed outside with 'tuggers' (small vehicles that moved disabled aircraft) and forced the _X_ onto the landing pad. When the _X_ was secured on the pad, the platform went underground into the repair bay of the dropship.

            "Since when did they have that much firepower?" Mark demanded.

            "They've always had it Mark," Catherine said, "just not so concentrated."

            "I can't believe what you did to her!" Seymour accused. The _X_ was missing a rear dorsal fin and one of its boosters was mangled.

            "No wonder I was tilting so much," Mark said.

            "You could've blown the engine apart if you left it on anymo- NO!" Seymour saw the Liger X. all its rear armor had evaporated and there was a big holed where the NARC beacon had been deployed. Many of the joint actuators were slag. The control panel was covered with red lights. "What the hell did you guys fight, an army?!"

            "Kinda," Catherine said, downing a bottle of water that Renee brought in. "But I wonder, why did they have such a strong defense there?"

            "This is why," Joanna said, showing the people present a picture she had just developed.

            "Oh my god…" Catherine said.

            "How… how horrible," Seymour said.

            "Damn," Mark said.

            "Who runs this- this thing?!" Catherine said angrily.

            "It has to be the Viceroy of this planet, Viceroy Johnson McAllister," Joanna said.   
"Everything that happens here is under his jurisdiction. And this is something only someone like him could be able to pull off."

~

            The downed pilot had regained consciousness a few hours ago. The Commander ordered Marlene to see him. Which was odd because she was just about to ask him if she could. Wasn't life funny?

            Marlene had a pretty good life, and never had to go to the hospital, for herself or because of anyone else. The waiting room seemed as normal as and other public room. But the hospital itself was very strange. The smells were the first thing to stand out. Marlene thought that it would smell dirty. But it smelled really clean, as a sterile environment usually smells. The lighting was very different too. She thought that hospitals were depressing places, but the bright lights changed her mind. When she finally arrived in Victors room, her views of hospitals had completely changed.

            "Hello," she said, handing him some flowers. She found a chair and sat next to him.

            "Thank you," he said and plucked a petal. He looked at it hesitantly and started munching on it. "Do you want some?" he offered.

            She giggled.

            "No. Flowers are for smelling, silly. You don't eat them"

            "Oh, that's good to hear. They don't taste that good."

            "Here," she said, and gave him a lollipop. He smelled it. "You're very funny," she said, and put her elbows at the edge of the bed and supported her head with her hands as she leaned forward. She stared into his green eyes for a few minutes, enchanted by their mystery. She couldn't stop a big goofy smile to appear on her face, which the pilot tried to imitate. This only caused her to smile more.

            "Captain said that you're going to be my partner from now on."

            "Who's the captain?"

            "He's kinda like my boss," Marlene said.

            "Is he my boss too?"

            "We don't really know. But we're pretty sure that you were one of the Zabat pilots that were attacked. If you really were, your boss died," she said, her giddy smile still on her face.

            "That sucks."

            "Hey, the doctors said that you can leave in a few days. All your wounds have healed, so if you pass the mental tests you can meet the team as soon as tomorrow."

            "I love you," Victor suddenly said.

            _Ba-dump_

            "Huh?"

            "I don't know. That just slipped out for some reason. I think you remind me of someone," he said absentmindedly.

            "Oh," she said. "Well, I have a city to slaughter, so I'll see you later," she quickly said and left the room.

            "Good bye, Cream Cheese," Victor waved goodbye.

            Marlene walked away as quickly as she could. _The Commander must have fixed me somehow. I'm never this jumpy around anyone._ She reached the Commander's office in record time and all but tore his door off its hinges. The Commander had a woman on top of her and he suddenly dropped her on the floor.

            "What did you do to me?!" she demanded, making a thin dagger come out of her CORE module and putting it up to his jugular.

            "Calm down Marlene, we don't want to do anything rash," he said nervously, putting his pants back on.

            "Ever since you started making me see that guy, my heart starts racing and I feel weird inside. Its like you put some drug into me!" she said in rage.

            "I wouldn't do anything like that Marlene," he said, trying to move his neck away from the dagger slowly. The woman on the ground ran outside.

            "Then what's going on? Why are you forcing me to stay with him?"

            "To tell you the truth, Marlene, he keeps you on a leash." She made a drop of blood come out. "Think about it Marlene. He seems to be that one thing you're missing." She eased up. "Ever since you found him in the Inner Forest, you haven't been pulling your usual crap," he said, and showed her a graph. "This was our expenditures before you met him," he said, pointing to a graph redlining, "and this is our expenditures now," he said, motioning to a graph well inside the blue. She retracted the dagger.

            "What else could I do Marlene? My superiors have been demanding that I lower our expenses, and this was the only thing I could do." He fixed his tie.

            "Okay," she said, suddenly calm. The bullshit he was giving her had somehow put her into a state of enlightenment. "Thanks Commander," she said cutely, slightly tilting her head to the side. Then she left the room as giddy as ever.

            _Damn… that crazy girl almost killed me! _The Commander thought. _But at least she's out of my hands for now. Who would have thought that she would have become attached to a Class A HES pilot. Once we get him certified, whoever commands him will get Marlene as part of the package._ He smiled. He put a line on the pilot "Victor's" dossier that he would only work with Marlene or not work at all. And with a HES pilot like this Victor, no one would oppose such a small demand. His smile grew bigger.

            "Clara," the Commander said to his secretary via intercom, "tell Viceroy Johnson that I am ready for that inspection that I've been delaying for so long…"

~

            "From the intelligence we've gathered from the last few missions, I have located the secret location of the Terran Command Center, and its commander, Viceroy Johnson," Joanna told everyone in the tactics room. Joanna planed a series of missions that would intercept convoys heading to and from the camp.

            The camp… That's what Viceroy Johnson was running. A _death_ camp. Those convoys were full of people. Political prisoners, resistance fighters, and people that the Terrans just felt like killing. Of course, no one could know of the death camps or the whole planet would revolt, and that's where the regiment of Kodiaks came in. No one without authorization came out of there alive. 

Except for the _Rogues_, of course. That was the nickname that the Terrans had given them. The looted and plundered the Terran convoys with such military precision that the Terrans thought that they were a rogue unit pissed of at Command. It was true, to a certain degree; everyone except Amy was a Terran. And they were pissed off at Command. _Very_ pissed off.

They determined from the intelligence that a full frontal attack on the death camp was suicide. Joanna decided they needed less direct methods, such as forcing the Viceroy to admit to the public the existence of the camps and give full disclosure of their activities. The Terran Command Center was fully mechanized and had very few HEV or HES pilots protecting it. Either Viceroy Johnson was very optimistic about Terran AI programs or he was very stupid. The mission to kidnap the Viceroy was ready to roll and Joanna gave everyone the low down.

It would essentially be a hit and run. The second they attacked, everything that could move would migrate to the Command Center. It would also have to be very exact, since they would have a very small window. Joanna set up cameras in and around the Command Center to observe Viceroy Johnson's daily movements. One thing that he seemed to always do was take a half an hour jog in the central courtyard. He was always covered by at least four security personnel at all times except when he went to a fountain to do some kind of yoga. His guards were kept a short distance away, but far enough for them to be sniped without Viceroy Johnson noticing.

            Once Catherine sniped all the guards, she, Amy, Joanna, Seymour, and James would distract the bases defenses while the _X_ would land in the courtyard and abduct the Viceroy. Mark would fly the _X_, while Renee would sedate and secure the Viceroy and Molly would assist her.

            Mark prepped the _X_ for launch while everyone else boarded the ship. Catherine, Amy, Joanna, Seymour, and James had already loaded their HEVs. Catherine had the Liger X, Amy had the Daishi, Joanna had the Mad Cat, and Seymour and James both had Command Wolfs. They all sat in the passenger cabin since it was a long trip, almost a quarter of Zi's circumference.

            The ride seemed like it took forever. Everyone was anxious about the upcoming mission and all it would entail. The thought that they were taking their first big step in their war against the Terrans was gut wrenching.

            Of course, everyone tried to keep busy as to keep him or herself from getting too nervous. Joanna and Seymour chatted casually as did Renee and James. Molly and Catherine conversed while Amy kept to herself, staring out at the setting sun. She ekpt on getting thoughts of those romantic nights she and Crass had on the Xian territories before this whole operation started and that brief period when she had just met Crass when he first crash landed on Zi.

[Flash back]

_This time I wore this cute orange swimsuit I got last summer. He wore the same baby blue swim shorts. My face was red the whole ride to the park (my car was fixed by now)._

_When we reached the park we met up with my friends, who were on their way to the water slide, so we tagged along. We split up into guys and girls, and we talked among ourselves. I could hear Crass' voice, and then all the guys would laugh. I felt bad for him, since he was embarrassing himself, but knowing him, he probably had no idea what was going on._

_"So Amy, are you two going steady yet?" said Cynthia._

_"Um… no." I replied_

_"Why not?" said Melanie_

_"I don't like him like that" I said_

_"Yes you do" said everyone in unison_

_"No…"_

_"Oh come on. You always go goo goo when ever you're near him. And you even pretended to be his boyfriend when we first met him" (by now everyone had found out about his amnesia, and didn't hit on him anymore, but the guys for some reason became friends with him real quick)_

_"No! You girls have some issues"_

_"Then can I ask him out?"_

_"No!"_

_"See, I told you."_

_"I meant, why are you asking me? I'm not his mother or anything…"_

_"Sure"_

_"Really"_

_"What. Everrr." Then we all went on the slide, and we had a pretty good time the rest of the day. We all went home in a big caravan. A big caravan of newly waxed expensive cars. We got home around six._

            "Amy," Catherine softly said, trying to wake her up. 

            "Sorry, I'm awake now. What can I do for you?"

            "It's okay Amy. Just came to tell you that we're almost there and that we have to get inside our units."

            "Oh, really? I didn't know it's been that long."

            "Its okay, we still have fifteen minutes," she said. "Amy, are you alright?"

            "Yeah, I'm fine. Why ask?"

            "Well, you seemed sad while you were asleep."

            "Oh, well, I was just dreaming of some memories I've had."

            "…it must be hard," Catherine said softly.

            "It is sometimes…" Amy said darkly. "But I would rather face the pain and have these memories then not have had them at all," she said a little bit more cheerful. "So, shall we?"

            "Yeah… lets go," the younger woman said.

~

This story will start to go by really quickly at this point. I'm even thinking about continuing after this story (tragically!?!) ends.


	5. Chapter Five: Strike

Here Without You, Baby 

Chapter Five: Strike

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior

Sorry about last week, I was in Florida (working like a dog!), so I will submit two chapters this week.

~

            The Gauss Rifle is one of the most deadly weapons in the Terran arsenal. Able to reload rapidly and generating almost no heat, a platform equipped with one could tear anything to shreds. Of course, it has its drawbacks; the rifle itself it large and heavy and its ammo is also bulky. Despite that, its effectiveness is not reduced. Utilizing magnetic fields strong enough to disable a nearby vehicle, a slug is accelerated near or past the speed of sound, with enough energy to penetrate almost anything's armor. 

For the punch it packs, Gauss Rifles do not have the hazards of most conventional weaponry. Firing it too much will not cause a platform to overheat. It does not carry any volatile chemicals to inflict damage, so internal damage would not cause internal explosions. It uses mag-lev technology to deliver the ammo to the gun and the slug is fired by magnetic fields, so it rarely get stuck since it has almost no moving parts. Finally, the slug hits the target so fast; one's location would not easily be betrayed by it.

Gauss Rifles do not do damage conventionally either. They were not intended to blow things up, nor were they intended to slow things down. They followed the sniper's rule: one shot, one kill. Assuming it was fired at the engine. The Guass Rifle fires high speed slugs that almost always penetrate a unit. The energy required for the penetration is high, so it loses a lot of its speed, so it ricochets inside the target instead of going through the other side, therefore mangling all of its internal machinery. If aimed correctly, it could hit ammo racks or the power plant, thereby assuring the target's… elimination.

The Gauss Rifle is one of the most feared weapons in the Terran arsenal. It is a weapon that assures a swift outcome and is always used as the final line of defense. An old technology, its power has only been rivaled by the PPC and recently, the CPC.

The Command Center was a dome dived into three parts by shafts extending from the center. Two of those shafts were entrances for whelled vehicles while the third shaft was for the garage. It seemed completely undefended. Nothing visible seemed to amount to any kind of threat. But that was one of the Terran's strategies, to lull the enemy into a false sense of security.

Mark first dropped off the Liger X and Catherine into a hilltop nearby. It was one of the most dangerous aspects of the mission, since one wrong move could alert the Terran's of their intentions. Luckily, Mark had dropped her off on the face of the hill away from the facility and was not caught. Catherine cautiously scaled the hill until she reached a nominal shooting site. She mounted her sniper rifle on top of the Liger and looked for her targets. Mark piloted the _X_ to the other side of the facility so that when Catherine fired, the Terran's would be unaware of their position. He landed the _X_ behind some rocks and shutdown. He opened the bay doors with auxiliary power the let the rest of the unit out and prepared for the runs he would possibly have to make. Otherwise, he would standby for extract. Amy, Joanna, James, and Seymour quickly filed out of the _X_ and spread out about half a kilometer apart and shutdown. Catherine reported she had found her targets.

After fifteen seconds, Catherine fired her gun and reported that the first target was down and that the group did not seem alerted yet. She fired again.

Sirens wailed. Red lights illuminated the sky and things started popping out of the ground. At first, they were just the regular pop-up turrets that all Terran bases came with. They scanned the area until they found the Liger. Catherine took one last shot and scrambled back into the Liger X. The Command Center's AI formed a targeting solution and red dots were all over her; the air between them was soon filled with missiles.

"Let's roll!" Joanna said, and the rest of the unit activated their HEV's. They quickly closed the distance between them and what Joanna had just identified as the garage entrance. "He's most likely to escape through there," she explained.

The Command Center had acquired them on radar and more pop-up turrets activated. At this point, a ring of exposed, hidden turrets surrounded the base. Joanna ordered everyone to take out the turrets defending the garage so that they could quickly acquire control of it and enter the building. When they were less then a kilometer from the base, however, something unusual happened.

A second ring of pop-up turrets surrounded the whole base's perimeter. The earth behind this new ring began to rumble and large pillars came out of the ground. The top of the pillars made a warm cyan glow and hummed to life.

"Mark, what does CHOAM report about those pillars?" Joanna demanded.

"Wait a second, its analyzing," he said, a little static interfering with the signal. Before Joanna could say anything else, she saw a vortex fly past her.

            "What was that?" Catherine said, taking the station's flank.

            "I can't tell, they're moving too fast," James said. Amy zoomed in with her specs and tried to see what they were.

            "It's hard to tell with the infrared, but the heat discharge on those thing seem to suggest that they're Gauss Rifle turrets," she said a few minutes later, barely dodging a slug in time.

            "That is a _lot_ of Gauss Rifles," Seymour commented. Was it him, or were those dodges getting closer and closer?

            "Joanna, I have some bad news, those pillars are making a shield around the Command Center," Mark reported in again, the static a little louder.

            "But I thought shield have a limit for their radius," Joanna said.

            "They do," he said "But the pillars only extend the shield a certain area which all intersect. Its basically a really strong fence."

            "Then what do we do to get past them?"

            "They only generate the shield away from the building, so I think I can take them out from the air."

            "Then get on it," Joanna ordered. She told everyone to pull back.

            "Hey, don't we have to worry about those reinforcements that should be rushing here anytime soon?" Catherine warned.

            "The closest Terran troop formation that I know of is fifty clicks away. We still have a little bit more time," Joanna assured her.

            "Dammi-" Mark radioed, but was cut off by a burst of static. Everyone looked in the direction of the _X_ and saw it being pounded by a multitude of Gauss Rifle slugs. The _X_ made a sharp turn and fell back. "Can't make it… too much… have to get rid of…" Mark tried to radio in, but the static was too much to hear clearly.

            "I think he wants us to take out those turrets," James said, stating the obvious. But there was heavy static in this communication.

            "They have a srambler here. We better do this quick or we'll lose communications," Joanna said, locking her LMR's at a section of turrets. She fired and let loose a volley of the long range missiles. Her left arm was torn off. "What the-"

            "How did those AI's manage to hit us from this range?" Catherin demanded.

            "That's what they were," Amy said. "Some of those turrets don't shoot. They do all the targeting. I think if we take them out, the Rifle turrets will be useless." Unfortunately, the Terran AI had finally found their frequency and Amy's last remark was unheard. Catherine charged in with her boosters blazing, hoping she could run the gauntlet. She was rewarded by having five slugs hit her, taking out her forward left leg, right wing and exploding her jetpack.

            "Catherine!" Joanna said. She made her way next to her in an effort to cover her from the pummel of slugs heading her way. It was to no avail though, as tens more of them started pelting her Mad Cat into Swiss cheese.

            James and Seymour tired sniping the Rifles from their current range, making a hit once in a while, but the effort needed to dodge the slugs was clearly draining their energy. Amy saw no choice but to put her plan into action by herself.

            She found a rock formation that could provide a little cover and started targeting the Line-Of-Sight turrets. She fired her LMR and her own Gauss Rifle at a trio of LOS turrets aiming at Joanna. They erupted in smoke, causing the turrets that were slaved to them to fire wildly. James and Seymour quickly caught on and tired their hands at taking out the LOS turrets. Amy took out a few more trios and gave James and Seymour the headway needed to get closer. Once they were inside the ring of Guass Rifle turrets, they followed the ring and took the LOS turrets out one by one. 

            "…needs help!" Joanna screamed into the comm. Apparently, the LOS turrets were also scrambling their radio channel.

            "Calm down" Molly said. "We're on our way." The _X_ illuminated the war scene with its incandescent search beams and descended next to the Liger. Joanna, Renee and Molly carefully took Catherine on board while Mark intercepted incoming missiles that were fired from the remaining turrets behind the shield fence.

            When Joanna and Catherine were safely onboard, Mark quickly gained altitude and plowed through the Command Center's defenses. Amy, James and Seymour intercepted missile that were desperately trying to take the _X_ down. Suddenly, an explosion from the garage exit caught all of their attention, and a convoy of Gustav escorted by four Kodiaks started heading south.

            "Joanna-" Mark started.

            "I know!" she said. "Everyone, after the convoy. We cannot let Johnson escape!" James and Seymour gave chase. Amy tried to follow, but she was to slow to catch up, so she provided some fire while they were still in range. She made a lucky hit on a Kodiak's foot articulator and the behemoth fell forward. The other three hesitated, but the turned back to confront the attackers.

            "Joanna…." Amy said, realizing that the two Command Wolfs and her Daishi could not stand up to the three Kodiaks.

            "CHOAM, can you hack into the Command Center and take control of the Gauss Rifle turrets?"

            "Affirmative"

            "DO IT!"

            "Target?"

            "The Kodiaks!" Amy and Joanna screamed in unison. The scorched earth full of ghastly Gauss Rifle turrets suddenly hummed back to life and the all pointed at the Kodiaks. The Pilots realized what had happened and were in a full retreat. They didn't even finish turning before they were taken out. James and Seymour caught up to the Gustavs and Mark hovered above them.

            "Viceroy Johnson, if you value your life, you will immediately surrender," Joanna said through the wide-band radio.

            "Never!" he replied. People came out of the Gustavs and fired assault weaponry at them. MPPC and laser fire racked the _X_.

            "Damn, they have shoulder mounted assault weaponry!" Mark said in frustration. He sped up and turned to face them so his shield could protect him. Seeing that they were getting nothing done, the Terrans fired on the Command Wolfs.

            "Arg!" James said as his Command Wolf's forward left leg lost its foot actuator. The foot could not compensate for the leg's movement and the whole leg crumpled under the Zoid's weight. But he wasn't near as much trouble as Seymour was. The Terrans were aiming at his cockpit and some were using shoulder mounted Gauss Rifles.

            "Seymour!" Joanna cried. A Rifle slug smashed into the canopy and the glass cracked in a spider web-like fashion. Joanna could see the very person who shot the slug lining up to shoot the vulnerable area he had just damaged. It was Johnson.

            "No!" Joanna said, willing him to miss. She saw the Rifle's targeter go red and Johnson was about to pull the trigger. "NO!!!" she screamed.

            As if she had summoned the will of God himself, the slug had somehow missed. She looked at the shooter and saw a big bloody hole in his stomach. She saw a few sparks behind him and saw that something had pierced the Gustav's armor. Even from up there, she could hear the Gauss Rifle slug ricocheting inside the Gustav. A blue light started coming from within the Gustav's mangled innards.

            "It had to be done," Amy said, her Daishi in a prone position, the arm with the Gauss Rifle within it out front.

            "MOVE!" Joanna ordered Mark, realizing what the eerie blue glow was. Mark pumped the throttle and the _X_ was accelerated to two kilometers per second. Joanna looked behind her and saw the effect of a Core meltdown. The Gauss Rifle had shown its devastation's potential when the Gutav's Core went critical and destroyed the convoy with it.

~

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	6. Chapter Six: Payback

Here Without You, Baby 

Chapter Six: Payback

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior

***

I woke up in a dream today  
To the cold of the static and put my cold feet on the floor  
Forgot all about yesterday  
Remembering I'm pretending to be where I'm not anymore  
A little taste of hypocrisy  
And I'm left in the wake of the mistake slow to react  
Even though you're so close to me  
You're still so distant  
And I can't bring you back

-Linkin Park (With You)

***

            "Admiral Molotov, here is the report for the planetary disturbances we've had for the last six months," a subordinate said, as she handed him a folder with a big red stamp on it saying _Top Secret._

            "Good" he said, and started reading through it. After the subordinate didn't leave, he got impatient. "Is there anything else that you want to say?"

            "…well sir, admiralty has found an exceptional soldier that they want you to jointly judge for HES certification," she said nervously.

            "Why would they make _me_ do such a menial task?" he said enraged. "I have an operation to run. Domestic matters are to be handled by the Viceroy!"

            "Well, sir… Viceroy Johnson was assassinated in last night's raid by the rogue unit." That got Molotov by surprise.

            "Pardon?"

            "Viceroy Johnson is dead, sir." He felt a sudden sharp pain in his heart.

            "Oh…" he finally said, the pain evident in his voice. "Tell them I'll… I'll be ready for him on next Thursday."

            "Yes sir," the subordinate said, and turned to leave.

            "Julia, what's his name?" he asked her before she left.

            "I think his name is Victor Morales," she said.

            "Victor, eh?" he said to himself. "Dismissed" he said, and she left.

            _They finally got Johnson._ He thought darkly. Ever since that unusual meteor made impact, a group of rogues had been harassing the Terrans and their establishments. Many thought they were Xi'an agents, since none of them had ever lost a HEV. But then, this planet had a very light garrison. Johnson had done his best to keep them at bay, but it was decided a more active approach was necessary. Admiral Molotov had been sent to relieve Johnson's garrison from having to defend from the attacks, and let them just handle domestic affairs. Admiralty was certain that the fleet's Advance Guard was more than enough to handle the rogues, being that they consisted of heavier units and had greater firepower. Unfortunately, as Molotov had just found out, Johnson was slain before he arrived in Zi's system. He would have come sooner had a previous engagement not held them back. Depressed, he looked through Victor's file to get his mind off his friend's passing. 

He was a detached member of the scout team that was sent to investigate the meteor, it seemed. He was found in a forest nearby the site of the massacre, surviving the fall only because his torn up parachute was tangled with the treetops. Evidently, the rogues fired him upon when he ejected from his vehicle. _God damn them!_

He was discovered by one Marlene Osawa, and absorbed into her unit once he had successfully recovered from his injuries. He insisted that he be her partner…

Molotov grinned. _Young, foolish love,_ he thought, and closed the file. Just because of what he had seen from him so far, he knew his answer.

He had rested enough, and it was time to garrison the troops.

***

            "Woo Hoo!!!" James explained, as the victory party ensued. The _Rogues_, as they had been known as for so long, had finally managed to make a crippling blow to the Terran Occupational Forces, when they finally took out this hemisphere's Command Center, and Viceroy Johnson with it. Though they had a lot of damage and injuries (they were lucky that the reinforcements arrived late enough for them to salvage their totaled vehicles), the blow dealt was worth it. Reports of civilian unrest and cities taking down garrisons were widespread and they thought they could see the end within reach. All that hard work was finally paying off.

            James went up to Renee and started dancing with her, even though she feigned objections. It was no secret that the two had something going on.

            "Hi Amy," Seymour said, sitting next to her, leaning his crutches on the side of his chair.

            "Hi Seymour…" Amy said weakly.

            "Why so down?"

            "I was just thinking. Two weeks from now would be me and Crass' first year anniversary."

            "Oh"

            "Hey Seymour, come dance with me!" Joanna said enthusiastically, jumping right in front of the two.

            "Well…" he started nervously, "I'm still in crutches…"

            "Aww, don't be such a baby!" she said, and pulled him up. She led the dance as the new age music played in the background. Seymour gestured an apology as the usually meek Joanna wiped the floor with him.

            Bored, and depressed from thinking about Crass again, Amy tuned into the news, in hopes that the coverage of Johnson's death would somehow cheer her up.

            "… and the nation mourns in unity as we bid Viceroy Johnson McAllister our final farewells."

            "Mourns in unity my ass," Amy thought out loud.

            The female anchor gave it up to the male anchor sitting next to her to start the next story.

            "There had been rumors that the Xi'an Home System had been found, but they were confirmed today as…"

"Guys!" Amy suddenly yelled. She let out a stream of invectives until she was loud enough to outmatch a hot rod's engine. The dancers stopped in their tracks and someone turned the music off.

            "Where's the fire?" Seymour said, as everyone congregated around the tube.

            "Just watch"

            "…miral Molotov had successfully invaded Xi'an territories, and conquered all of their Home Worlds." Everyone gasped. "The credit for finding the system was given to Jonathan Burke, an intelligence officer who doubled as a technician. It is unknown how he managed to get into Xi'an space, but he had successfully deployed a homing beacon on a planet on the edge of their territories. The Fleet immediately responded when the signal was received, and history was made today as the Terrans have finally brought the Xi'ans to justice."

            "Dammit!" Joanna swore angrily.

            "In further news, Admiralty has reported that Admiral Molotov recently arrived with the First Advanced Guard, an elite unit that has seen tours in the Crab Neb-"

            "DAMMIT!" Joanna swore again.

            "…Admiral Molotov has informed the press that he will take over garrison duties with the Advanced Guard. He continued to say that the newly formed _Nova Cluster_, an elite group of HES pilots, will scour over Zi and 'bring the killers of Viceroy Johnson to justice.'"

            "That's good to hear, Tom." The female anchor said in feigned cheerfulness. Then she went on to cover something about a new weather satellite.

***

Zi

Classified Location (Desert)

HES/HEV Pilot Proving Grounds

            "Hello Mr. Morales," the Admiral greeted warmly and offered his hand.

            "It's an honor to meet you, sir," Victor said nervously. The Admiral laughed.

            "If you're this nervous in front of me, imagine how you'll do when you have to take the actual test!"

            "Sorry sir," he said meekly. Molotov noticed a glare coming from Victor's hand and saw his CORE module.

            "I see you still have that older module that you were found with."

            "Yes sir," Victor said, tensing up. Neither spoke.

            "Well now. I think its time to start," Molotov said, checking his chronometer. He entered a military Hummer and cleared the test site, seeking shelter at an observational bunker where he would judge.

            "Begin Level 1" Molotov radioed to Victor through the CORE module.

            Victor activated his first level HES and went through the obstacle course in front of him. This was a breeze for him; it was just an entrance exam that kept unable people from going onto the harder (and more expensive to run) levels.

            "Good, now go to level 2"

            Victor changed to his medium platform and took out stationary and mobile targets. In the second phase of that part of the test, the targets shot back at him. In the third and final phase of that part of the test, the targets still fired at him, but he couldn't get hit this time. And all the while, the AI got increasingly smarter. Easy…

            "Excellent. Go on to Level 3"

            Victor changed to his assault platform and had to go head to head with an ace pilot. He had to hold his ground for at least fifteen minutes. They took flight, and the ace attacked him first with long-range rifles, then with medium range lasers and missiles, and finally hand-to-hand with charged plasma claws that extruded from the armor's forearm.

            "Not bad," Molotov said. "Go to the hangar for refit," he ordered. _Now to see if he can really handle it._

            Victor landed inside the hangar and let the repair-dock fix the damage he accrued from the previous skirmish. When the repairs were half done, something tore a hole into the hangar. Victor looked at the direction of sudden noise and saw a Dark Spiner tearing its way towards him.

            Instantly, he took flight and dodged the Zoid's deadly assault.

            "This is Victor," Victor radioed urgently. "Request permission to use Space Combat Mode."

            "Permission granted," the head Judge radioed.

            Blue-white-metallic scales came out of his CORE module until he was covered in a shiny blue/white overall. Then the jetpack, life support and weapons slithered onto their new positions. Finally, a clear blue shield/crystal materialized on his chest, and started to glow.

            Taking it up a notch, Victor flew straight at the Dark Spiner and attacked it with his MPPC's. Volley after volley shook the Zoid, while its EMP effects left the pilot vulnerable. Taking advantage of the situation, Victor activated his charged plasma claws and started tearing at the Zoid's joints.

            The pilot finally regained control, and fired at Victor with its mini defense array. The surprise attack knocked Victor away, and it fired at him with its twin pulse cannons. The sheer force of the impact (with the added force of its 144mm cannons) pushed Victor several hundred feet into the ground, burying his head in the process. When he finally could see, he saw a large white light heading for him from the Dark Spiner's direction.

***

            _If he can come out of this alive, he will automatically become a member of my _Nova Cluster, I thought. Only someone with true skill could get away with his life in time. Those that didn't happened to insult my ability to discern talent. I was disappointed though. The stupid fool just stood there, no doubt with mouth gaping.

            Within seconds, the blinding light consumed him. I stood up to leave when I heard gasps from the other judges. They were looking at the direction of where the blundering fool was. But to my astonishment, he was still there. He had his claws crossed in front of him with his shield no doubt at maximum. He had managed to take a hit from a CPC and lived to tell about it. I took my seat again. _You will be very interesting indeed, Victor Morales._

            Victor lighted his flight pack, and landed near the joints that he had trashed up. Noticing the large holes, he fired many MPPC's inside, and annihilated the internal circuitry. The Spiner lurched to its side and fell, but Victor managed to get out of the way in time. The battle was over.

***

Sirens went off signaling the official end of my test. The timers said I had a total time of about forty minutes. I retracted my HES and saw Marlene come to me on her hover board; she all but jumped on top of me.

"You did it!" she said joyously, and gave me a deep kiss.

"I just passed the test," I said exasperated.

"You are such an idiot sometimes," she said and wrapped her arms around me. "_You made it into the _Nova Cluster," she whispered into my ear. My knees suddenly grew weak and I was glad she was holding onto me. I held onto her and accidentally grabbed her butt.

SLAP

            "Hey, it was an accident," I complained, massaging the red mark on my face.

            "Its still no excuse," she said, and pretended to be mad at me. But the look I gave her quickly got her around my neck again. "_How did you improve so much, Victor?_" she whispered again.

            "I don't know. When I met Admiral Molotov, I just flipped out…" I said softly.

            "Er hrm," the Admiral coughed, bringing the two to attention. "As you probably know by now, you are now part of my _Nova Cluster_ unit. On your first assignment, you will be partnered with Mrs. Osawa. Commander Jake will fill you in on the details."

            "Um… did you just say that I would be his partner?" Marlene said shocked. "I never passed the _Nova Cluster_ entrance exam."

            "True," he said, but took out a folder and showed a file inside of it. "But as Mr. Morales originally specified, only Ms. Osawa can be his partner," he said, and entered the waiting Hummer. It sped off to wherever the Admiral was needed.

            "You know, since you got me into the _Nova Cluster_, I should reward you," Marlene said seductively. I had a big, stupid grin on my face.

            "But only if you can catch me!" she said, and sped off; somehow she had mounted her hover board without me knowing.

            "Oh no you don't!" I said. I activated a flight pack from my CORE module, and easily caught up to her. I snuck up from behind and put my arms around her hips. Then I suddenly launched us into the air and we stood there, staring into each other's eyes. Slowly, I gave her a deep, passionate kiss, the setting desert sun as our background.

***

I just realized that I used a lot of Irish sounding names. So I put an Asian sounding one just for familiarity. I'm so weird…

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	7. Chapter Seven: Alliance

Here Without You, Baby 

Chapter Seven: Alliance

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior

~

            Joanna sat in the tactics room, going over the same data spreads for the tenth time. CHOAM was resourceful enough to be able to access the Terran databanks, using back channels that all Terran AI's were assigned to use. The Terrans never put firewalls or security protocols that were worth mentioning, only because the other CHOAM-type AI's that used that server would automatically hack into any alien users. But CHOAM was not alien to the system, and the Terran designers never expected any of their AI's to turn against them, so there were no restrictions on AI's of Terran origin.

            CHOAM had been able to scan the databanks for tactical information about the new Terran military. It also went through classified files to see if the Xi'an wasn't just propaganda; it wasn't propaganda. It was nothing compared to propaganda. It was _genocide._ There was not a trace of the Xi'an species left after the initial invasion. That's why the takeover was so quick.

            As for the tactical information, the Terrans had come well prepared. Fifty heavy armor units, seven mobile field base groups, a hundred patrol units, and industrial infrastructure including HEV factories, hybrid factories, planetary defense systems, and a spaceport. The planetary defense systems were ground based as well as space based. Some of the orbital defense arrays were made pointed down.

            And that was just the first wave. There were to be more shipments to come in smaller packets, but in the end, Zi would essentially become a military outpost.

            This was Joanna's burden. She not only had to figure out how to keep their location remain secret while being able to effectively take out the Terran infrastructure before they could get up and running.

            "I give up!" Joanna said exasperated and left the room. She had been there for well over fifty straight hours with nothing to keep her going but caffeine. Seymour checked on her once in a while and insisted that she take a breather. Her fatigue finally caught up to her, and she decided to go to bed. The door opened as she started walking out.

            "Hey Joanna-" Seymour started, but bumped into her.

            "Hi," Joanna said.

            "I thought maybe you should take a breather," Seymour said.

            "You know what, I think I'll take a walk," Joanna said. She took a turn to the main corridor and headed to the personnel exit. 

            "Hey, wait up," Seymour said, struggling to catch up with her on his crutches. "So, how do things look?" Seymour asked when he caught up.

            "Not that good," Joanna said dryly.

            "Its that bad?"

            "We're outnumbered at least a hundred to one. Not including the infantry, permanent defenses and reinforcements that are already headed this way," she said. They reached the outer lock and waited for it to cycle. When it was done, they took a step into the hastily made shaft that would lead them to the surface.

            "What can we do at this point?" Seymour finally asked, as the soft glow of Zi's moons met their faces.

            "Wow, it's already this late?" Joanna asked no one in particular.

            "Yeah, you've been cooped up in there for so long, Amy stared reading the news on the nET." Joanna laughed a little. After a leisurely walk, Joanna sat down on a rock. Seymour put his crutches nearby and sat next to her.

            "Tell you the truth, Seymour, I don't think we're gonna make it…"

            "Pardon?"

            "Its just too much for us to handle. How long do you think we'll be able to make those near disaster missions before someone gets hurt… or worse."

            "But-"

            "And even if we do manage to make it through the missions, the Terrans will just rebuild it all. Face it Seymour, we just can't win. We might as well just surrender."

            "Don't say that," Seymour said firmly. "Just because we have so much to deal with, doesn't mean that its impossible." He forced her to look him in the face. "We'll just take it a little bit at a time, and we'll deal with it as it comes. Just don't give up on us. I know that we haven't given up on you."

            The two sat there, looking at each other's eyes for a little bit.

            "I guess you're right," Joanna said, and turned to stare at the moons. Seymour followed and the two stood silent for a long time. After a while, Joanna rested her head on Seymour's shoulder. He turned to look at her and saw her peacefully asleep, her beauty radiating with the moonlight.

            _Sleep as long as you want, you deserve it,_ Seymour thought. He stared at her for a long time until he heard something.

            _Hisssss_

            "What was that?" Seymour said to no one in particular.

            _Hisssss_. Seymour looked at where the sound had come from and saw something that made him nearly wet his pants; a rattle snake.

            "Joanna," Seymour whispered.

            "Ugh…"

            "Joanna…" Seymour tried again, only to be met by more grunts. Obviously, those fifty hours would not give.

            "Dammit!" Seymour said to himself as the rattler came closer, rattling its tail violently now. Seymour took one of his crutches and tried to scare it away. "Scat you little beastie!" he shooed. The snake seemed to submit and left. But then it jumped from nowhere and bit Joanna's arm.

            "Holy Cow!" Seymour said. He quickly got to his feet, picked up Joanna and the snake, and to the shaft and hollered for Renee. Renee came running in, complaining about the hour but stopped the instant she saw Joanna in his arms, the snake still writhing. She quickly sent her to the medical center ad started work on an antidote. Seymour stood by Joanna the whole time, wiping her forehead from all the sweat she was getting. He didn't make any motion to leave her side until the ant venom was created and still wouldn't leave until it was administered. Joanna woke up a few minutes later and was greeted by Seymour, Renee and James (who had come to assist once he found out what all the commotion was al about.)

            "Hey there, you sure scared us for a bit," Seymour said, his hand still enveloping hers.

            "What happened?" Joanna said confused and fighting to stay awake.

            "Its alright now, just go back to sleep." Renee said and shut her eyes. Joanna went back to that peaceful state she was in before the snake biting incident.

            The three walked out of the room, happy that the incident wasn't any worse. That's when James realized it.

            "Hey Seymour, aren't you still on crutches for a few weeks?"

            "Yeah, why?" he said as they walked into the waiting room.

            "Well, I don't see any crutches…"

            "Really?" he said and looked down. His adrenaline glands decided his body had had enough.

~

            Amy was surfing the nET for the past few hours, looking through the damage that they had caused to far. There were reports of convoys, garages, factories and offices that we had trashed or disabled and all the financial debt we were putting them in. There were also other isolated incidents from other resistance groups, not very few stood out. Those that did left a symbol that looked very familiar.

            She searched through the nET for that picture but it was very elusive. She tried search engine after search engine, but found nothing. The news agencies turned out nothing either. Finally, she gave it up to CHOAM. Within five minutes, he found one hit. It was a restricted file that CHOAM had hacked into from the AI back channels. It was a symbol she thought she would never see again.

            "AH!!!!!!" she heard from outside the corridor. She quickly printed the file and made CHOAM disconnect. Then she went outside to see what was going on. Evidently, Seymour had actually _carried_ Joanna from outside to the med center without his crutches. He was probably pumped up with adrenaline, so when it all went away the pain hit him like a brick wall. They set him up next to Joanna and put him to sleep with sleeping gas.

            She also found out that Joanna was knocked out, so she couldn't tell her about what she just found. But it was too hot to just leave alone. She made CHOAM make an untraceable phone call to the number she had. A male voice answered.

            "Hello, this is Kiki Tiki restaurant, how may I help you?"

            "I would like to speak to your manager," Amy said coolly. She heard a small gasp.

            "Amy? Is that you? You're still alive!" the voice said hysterically.

            "Yeah, and the same goes for you," she laughed.

            "Oh gosh, how long has it been since we last spoke?"

            "Too long… But you know, this isn't a social call," she said darkly.

            "Of course," the other said. "We can't get exposed like this. How about this, meet us in our old base?"

            "Sure, I'll be there within the hour."

            "I'd like to make it, but 'business' is tight. But I'll do the next best thing, I'll send in one of our collaborators."

            "Sure, that's fine. I'll see you later."

            "Definitely," pause. "Its nice to hear your voice again."

            "Yeah, see you later. Bit Cloud."

~

            The place was a ghost of its former self. The Blitz team base was nothing but girders and walls now. Amy took the Harrier IIC and left base as soon as she could, saying only that she had something very important to attend to. She was cloaked, of course, but she still landed in a very secluded and hard to find spot. She trudged warily to the base, hoping her contact wouldn't take too long.

            She opened the old, rusty doors of the main hangar, empty like a ghost town. She slowly walked in, thinking back to her last encounter with the Blitz team.

            "Put your hands up!" someone said with a PA system. Amy complied, and slowly turned to the voice. She didn't see anyone.

            "Now, slowly go to the back of the hangar," the voice ordered, and Amy followed, carefully walking backwards. Something de-cloaked before her.

            "What? Bit set me up?!" Amy said in rage, realizing that the Terrans had found her.

            "No he didn't," the voice said, this time without the PA. Someone jumped out of the de-cloaking unit and walked up to her. "I'm sorry, that was just for security, we wanted to make sure that you were really this 'Amy Rose' person Bit told us about."

            "And how could you tell?"

            "We have a… profile of you," she said cryptically.

            "Well then, I think we have a lot of work to do," Amy said.

            "A _lot_ of work. The Terran's just got their first shipment of material planet-side."

~

            When Joanna woke up, the first thing she heard about was of Amy's discovery and the recent activity. Then she noticed Seymour next to her bed. When she asked what happened to her, the events shocked her.

            Being of able physical ability and sound mind, she set off to work with the new data that Amy had received in the tactical room (which she was far too familiar with for her own liking). But she made Renee promise her that she would inform Joanna of any developments that Seymour had. 

            The data was enormous. CHOAM had worked miracles, but the Fluegal team had somehow made vast networks that penetrated deep into Terran command. Since nearly a quarter of the present Terran army were natives to Zi, sympathizers and recruiters were easy to find. Even some of the high Terran officials had defected. But Naomi and her organization would amount to nothing if the new Terran reinforcements arrived. They already set off to fabricate a plan that would strike the Terrans hard and fast.

            There were three prime targets that they immediately had to get. One was a convoy transporting some serious hardware: Naval Class, Z5 Terra bombs. If fired from the ground, they would cover only 1000 square feet, they could devastate whole _cities_ when launched from space. They were notoriously known to have been used in genocide operations…

            The next target was the secret temporary space dock the Terrans had. It was their only present means of getting space construction done without the public's knowledge. Once the real spaceport was made of course, they could do construction without _any_ interference.

            The last target was a military fortification that was being built _Eise_ peninsula. It would be underground, so that the public didn't know about it since it was illegal for them to build it under the treaty that _they_ created. 

            These operations had to be done almost simultaneously, since letting any of them proceed any more would have serious consequences. Fortunately, the _Rogues_ were not alone; they now had allies. The _Rogues_ would have the responsibility to stop the suspect convoy. Naomi's team would handle the spaceport. The Blitz team, Champ team (who knew Harry had balls?) and a team that was called the Hell's Hounds would take the outpost, which was nearing completion.

~

            The plan was simple: hit them hard, hit them fast. Seymour was still recovering, so Molly would take his place. Amy would pilot the Daishi and Catherine would pilot the Kodiak, while Mark would hot drop them in front and behind the convoy. Molly and Joanna would pilot the Storm Sworders would take out any ground-to-air and air-to-air defenders before Mark arrived in the _X_. Assuming that the Terrans were sane, they would quickly surrender and they could acquire the bombs by loading them into the _X_. Then they would destroy everything and let the Terrans fend for themselves.

            The operation started as soon as they could mobilize. The Storm Sworders would fly escort for Amy and Catherine, since they would be suspended on the _X_'s wings by metallic cables. They were also going to fly low since they would stick out like sore thumbs otherwise. When they were ten kilometers from the target, the Storm Sworders prepared for their angle of attack vector. They made the run, going low and at a high rate of speed so that they could gain valuable tactical data before they made their attack run.

            The convoy was relatively small for the cargo they carried. But there was a reason, Amnesty International didn't have big convoys. The Terrans had stooped so low as to use a noble organization as cover for their evil ways. There were a total of eight vehicles. Three anti-air, two ground to ground, and one anti-personnel; of course they were hidden under the canopy as to keep anyone from noticing, but military hardware was very sharp when it came to intelligence gathering. The last two were large trucks. One carried actual supplies, while the other had the goods. And they were ready to be used at any time; it was a mobile rocket launcher.

            Molly took one of the anti-airs while Joanna took another. The three Terran vehicles had a lock on them by now, so they were trying to shoot them down, two of which scored hits on Joanna's left wing and leg. Joanna was losing altitude, but said that she was okay. The last remaining one evaporated and six PPC emissions made contact.

            "Wow…" Amy said, being able to see the devastation. The _X_ and the HEV's attached to it had simultaneously fired at it.

            Mark dropped the Daishi off first, since it was the faster of the two assault-class HEV's, so it could keep up with the convoy as it moved. The sudden loss of mass caused the _X_ to start tipping to its side, but Mark burned some of his lateral boosters to compensate. He accelerated and dropped off the Kodiak in front of the convoy, then exposed its weapons, each bristling vessel of devastation bearing on the remaining five vehicles.

            "Surrender or be destroyed!" Mark said over the PA. At this point, the three escorts immediately complied, followed by the cargo truck. The one carrying the bombs, on the other hand, went even faster in a vain attempt to evade. Amy fired a Gauss slug near its starboard. Fortunately, the vehicle slowed down and finally stopped.

            "Phew, at least this bunch isn't crazy," Joanna said over the secure frequency. She could not be ay more wrong. The canopy of the vehicle tore apart as the rocket racks came to bear on the _X_.

            "We will _never_ surrender to you scum, unlike those maggots!" someone said in a broad-band communication.

            "You don't stand a chance," Mark said. "If you fire a single rocket, the rest of us will be on top of you in seconds." Three rockets flared.

            "Die traitors!!!" the person said again. The vehicle's doors opened and several people could be seen scrambling to get away. Amy could see a lone person still in the cab.

            "For the good of Earth!" he said, and the vehicle exploded in a blinding flash, taking out those who were trying to get away and the rest of the convoy.

            The shockwave caused by the sudden contraction of air forced the _X_ to lose control, causing it to spiral and racked the Storm Sworders. The Daishi and Kodiak toppled back.

            Mark fought hard to gain control as the air compressed again to fill the vacuum. Joanna was the first one to speak. "Is everyone okay?"

            "Roger," they said, one by one, except Joanna, whose Storm Sworder had lost a wing and crash-landed. Luckily, she had ejected in time and was on her way to safety.

            Molly went to intercept Joanna while Mark scrambled to see if there were any survivors; there was only a large, white-hot crater.

            "What happened?" Joanna asked, the howling wind coming through her comm.

            "I took it out before the missiles fired…" Amy said a bit gloomily. Up till now, she had never killed anyone who didn't want to fight, directly or indirectly.

~

            The _Rogues_ were back at base, assessing their situation. All the operations were more or less complete successes. The convoy and its payload were gone, the outpost turned to slag and the spaceport inoperable. Fortunately, they had no deaths, but Naomi was seriously injured when an underground fuel tank exploded beneath her (spaceport fuel tanks were left far away from it in case something caused its high unstable and volatile materials to combust).

            News agencies were all over it. In the last two years, the people were lsowly given back some of their rights, and the news agencies had started coming back. This was a major plus in that the Terrans were being exposed and it would be soon when the death camps and other atrocities were uncovered. But for now, they had made this battle and the _Rogues _were taking a breather.

~

Not that great a chapter, but the rest does really get faster (pretty sure this time). At this point all I can modify is the final chapters, which start some even more ridiculous plots.

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	8. Chapter Eight: Rogue Ops

Here Without You, Baby 

Chapter Eight: Rogue Ops

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior

***

I said a la favella los colores  
The streets are getting hotter  
There is no water  
To put out the fire  
Mi canto la esperanza  
Se mira Maria on the corner  
Thinking of ways to make it better  
Then I looked up in the sky  
Hoping of days of paradise

-Santana (Maria Maria)

***

            "Chaos erupted today as the _Rogues_ made a surprise attack on an Amnesty International convoy. The desert sky ignited as they fired countless PPC emissions at the cargo trucks. The explosions were followed by the impacts covered over 1000 square feet of desert, and melted much of the surrounding landscape.

            "Before the _Rogues_ left the battlefield, they sent a communication to the commander in charge, saying 'You can't hide anything from us. We know everything that you do and everything you will do. Don't think this charade is fooling anyone.' And left in an unidentified ship.

            "Natives of the region claimed that the convoy was illegally transporting Z5 Terra bombs within the convoy, citing the devastation of the truck's explosion and residues left behind as evidence. Local leaders denounced the Terran government's use of such clandestine tactics, and demanded that the people should have been told.

            (Footage of one of the leaders talking) 'Its outrageous that the Terran government used Amnesty International as a cover for building another military outpost. They had set limits on what they could and couldn't do and, as always, have flagrantly disregarded them. Its about time that they let us have the self appointed government that they have been promising us for so long, and get the hell out of here!'

            "Admiral Molotov had this to say about the allegations: 'Obviously, it was just another act set up by the _Rogues_ to keep us from transitioning from our current Martial Law to a Representative government. These crimes will not go unpunished, and they will be brought to justice'

            (Reporter) 'Admiral Molotov, is it true that the _Rogues_ have destroyed another military fortification in the _Eise_ peninsula?'

            'As we have stated before, we have never had a military fortification in that region as per our treaty.'

            (Reporter) 'Admiral Molotov, what do you have to say about allegations of there still being death camps?'

            'That those allegations are completely false and that these so-called "death camps" have never existed. That will be all.'"

***

_I ran for twenty minutes, and I was pooped. So I stood by the road, and did the thing I saw a hitchhiker do on the road when he was picked up. A lot of cars passed by, and no one stopped, so I started walking as I waited for a car to pull up._ At least I'm moving.

_Then I heard a car pull up, and I turned to see if it was someone who would help me. When I saw the car, I recognized it from somewhere. I looked inside, and there she was; she looked like she had been crying for some time._

_"Need a ride?" she said weakly. I got mad again, and started walking again, but stopped when I heard her sobbing. "I'm sorry alright" was all she could say. I took a few deep breaths, and went into her car. She put her arms around my neck, and started crying again. "I'm so sorry" was all she could say._

(Change scene)

The energy was headed straight at us and I felt that there was nothing that I could do. It seemed she felt the same, so all we did was hold hands and see each other's faces for the last precious seconds of our life…

            "NO!" I screamed, suddenly sitting up.

            "Victor, what is it?" Marlene said groggily; I had also woken her up. Seeing that I was really upset about what I had dreamed about, she got up and sat in front of me, holding my hands. "It's okay Victor."

            I suddenly wrapped my arms tightly around her and started crying. "Don't leave me," I begged. "Please don't leave me," I started crying.

            "Its okay Victor. I'm here for you, and I'll always be by your side," she said, trying to calm me down. I held onto her tighter, and cried uncontrollably.

            We woke up early in the morning, and quickly made our morning rounds. By 7 AM, we were in the briefing room with the rest of our team, waiting for our orders. Surprisingly, Admiral Molotov himself had come to give it to us. This had to be big.

            "We _cannot _afford to be embarrassed by those rogues one more time. I have therefore decided to suspend your search and destroy operation."

            "_What?_" the unit exclaimed in unison.

            "There are more pressing matters to be attended to, and I _cannot_ afford to have this operation fudged," he said, and dimmed the lights. A holo-projector activated and showed the briefing. "You will take this package to the spaceport to make sure that this component is delivered to the weather satellite."

            "Um, sir, why are we doing such an easy mission?"

            "BECAUSE I CANNOT TOLERATE ANY MORE FAILURES!" he yelled angrily. He paused a few moments to calm himself down. "Those rogues have screwed up everything that I've been trying to do, and this unit hasn't found _one_ hint of their whereabouts," he said, then coldly, "Therefore I have decided to go to more traditional means of finding them, making _actual_ use of your abilities, no matter how nominal," he turned the lights on, and uploaded our specific objectives into our CORE modules.

            "Must be that time of the month again." I murmured to Marlene as we left to get our gear. She gave me a soft jab to the ribs. "Ow…" I feigned; I got a giggle from her.

            We made our way through the military base, and got our mission gear. Then we went to the waiting convoy.

***

            It was amazing. Even with the arrival of Admiral Molotov and the loss of our Xi'an hosts, we had actually managed to make some progress. It seemed that we weren't the only ones who were in the underground fight for freedom. Prominent Zoid teams, such as the Blitz team and Fluegal team, had holed up underground and did what they could to harass the Terrans.

            After the arrival of Admiral Molotov, all hope seemed lost. But Amy had somehow managed to contact the Fluegal team, and everything just started moving. We started getting more organized, and did more damage. We now have a network of cities, militias, former Zoid teams, and even Terran soldiers on our side. Just recently, we found a shipment of Naval class Z5 Terra bombs being transported to the star port for some reason. We could imagine what Molotov was capable of, and decided that we had to get rid of it as soon as possible. Molly wanted us to take the bombs, and so it was our intention, but the crazy troop leader tried to use it on us, so we just annihilated them.

            Our biggest problem was the death camps. Everyday, hundreds are sent there, and hundreds of thousands have been slaughtered there ever since. But the dozens of million of people on Zi don't know a thing about them. Anyone that the government sees as a serious threat is taken there without charge and within a few weeks, dies.

            We've been working hard to expose and liberate the camps, but they are too heavily fortified. Our strategy has been to weaken them little by little and when weakened enough, strike. We've attack major industrial complexes, military fortifications, and destroyed thousands of HEVs and Zoids. The estimate for the damage we've given is nearing 500 trillion…

            "Joanna…" Renee said, snapping me out of my daze.

            "Huh?"

            "Do you think it'll be a boy or a girl?"

            "Hmm… I don't really know."

            "Come on, a mother _knows_."

            "Well, this mother doesn't!" I exclaimed, annoyed by her constantly pestering me about my unborn child. Don't tell me. You want to know about my pregnancy too? Argh, you people are so annoying.

            All Terrans that join the armed forces are taught ways to have "safe" intercourse. I know the drills like the back of my hand. But I forgot about them one romantic night. A few weeks later, I found out I was pregnant when I went to Renee with complaints about headaches I had been having.

            When I told Seymour about it, he freaked out. He nagged at me for being so stupid and forgetting such a simple thing. We had a minor fight about it, but it dawned upon him that not only was I pregnant, I was pregnant with _his_ child. He then no longer cared that we would be one 'man' short, or that there was another mouth to feed. He went around, telling everyone excitedly that we were having a kid, embarrassing me to oblivion…

            "Joanna!" Mark hollered.

            "What?" I hollered back.

            "We've got trouble!"

            "What?" I said again as he came.

            "CHOAM said that it's located something high-tech going to the spaceport."

            "Does it know what?"

            "No."

            "Well, lets get going then…" I said, the lack of sleep evident.

            "Joanna, I think you should sit this one out," Catherine said, as we headed to the vehicles hangar.

            "Why? This will be an easy mission and I haven't seen any action since two months ago."

            "You know, with the baby coming and all…"

            "I can handle it."

            "Well, it's just. I know you've been under a lot of stress lately, and I don't think that you should push yourself too much."

            "Don't worry," I smiled reassuringly. "Where I come from, women in their nine month of pregnancy do farm work."

            "I'm just saying," she said as they entered the hangar. "Just be careful out there."

***

They made it to the ambush point rather quickly. It was part of the route where two hills were on either side of the road, and they were thickly covered in trees. The _Rouges_ had their normal hit and run vehicles, the Liger X (piloted by "Cathy," as she had been nicknamed), the Mad Cat (piloted by Joanna), the Command Wolfs (piloted by Amy and Seymour), the Rev Raptors (piloted by Renee and James), and the Jenner IIC (piloted by Molly). Mark would provide extract and, if necessary, aerial support.

Cathy, Renee and James would cover both sides of the path when the assault would start. Joanna, Amy, Seymour, and Molly would be at the hilltops and fire. If all went well, this would be over quickly.

They were all shutdown, with only binoculars to let them see. They also had tight-beam communication devices, so that the enemy wouldn't pick up their communications. Only Joanna had her passive radar on. No need to upset them. Yet.

At exactly the right time, the convoy pulled in. One by one, the cargo trucks entered the pass, unsuspecting of their fate. When they were all in their line of fire, Joanna, Amy, Seymour, and Molly activated their respective vessels of destruction, and laid siege on the Terrans. The trucks that did not get destroyed by the initial charge made a mad dash for the pass's exit, but saw the ferocious figure of a Mad Cat and the Liger X. Swiftly, Joanna expelled 8 salvos of 6 Streak SRM's at the trucks, causing them to explode one by one. Cathy went in for the few kills remaining.

"Is that the last of them?" Cathy asked, as Amy sniped the last remaining cargo truck.

"No. It seems that there are two convoys instead of one."

"What? Why didn't you tell us that before?"

"Mark just got the message when we started and just told me when you asked. But he said that the other convoy will still go by here, since they aren't aware of what we just did."

            "Then what do we do?" Molly asked.

            "We move this stuff, and wait." Three hours later, the first cargo truck came into view. Molly had the brilliant idea of putting all the scrap near the entrance, so when the last truck came in, they would let it all fall and close that entrance. That way, Cathy and the Rev Raptors could all focus on one end.

            "I just realized something," Amy said to everyone as the trucks came closer and closer. "Whenever we attack a convoy, its usually escorted by something."

            "What's your point?" James said.

            "Neither of these convoys had escorts."

            "Yeah, that is weird," Joanna concurred.

            Joanna, Amy, Seymour and Molly activated as the last truck pulled in. Molly shot down the support that held the truck rubble up from the last battle and it all toppled, blocking the entrance. But the trucks didn't make a mad rush this time; they stopped.

            "Something's wrong here" Amy thought out loud. No sooner had she said that, an outstanding metallic truck suddenly fired missiles at them. But they weren't missiles, they were people with jetpacks on. The famed _Nova Cluster_.

            "Shit, get into the forests!" Joanna warned.

            "Why?" Cathy demanded.

            "That's the _Nova Cluster_. We can't fight their HES's with these light HEV's!" Everyone made a mad dash to the forest, while Joanna sprayed as many salvos of missiles as she could at the trucks to keep the _Nova Cluster_ busy; hopefully, some of the missiles would hit.

            They all safely made it to the forest, but the _Nova Cluster_ was still in hot pursuit.

            "Mark! Get the _X_ ready to fly! _NOW!_" Joanna ordered.

            "I'm already on it. Bay will be open in approximately 2 minutes."

            "Dammit!" Joanna swore, sweat precipitating down her face. They couldn't run away from them for that long. 

            The Terrans zigzagged through the trees, and slowly caught up to the Liger X and Mad Cat. As soon as they were close enough, they fired their MPPC's at their legs, momentarily knocking out their gyros, and making the Mad Cat fall.

            "Joanna!" Cathy and Seymour yelled. They both went to her position in hopes that they could lead the HES's away. Cathy ionized the air with her blades, and Seymour fired wildly into the air. The ionization caused some of them to back off, and they all decided to chase Seymour, since the Liger X was basically covering the Mad Cat and itself.

            Amy caught up to Seymour, and they both led the HES's away from the _X. _They split up again, but they only followed Amy. Mark was ready and the bay doors were open, so the Liger X, Mad Cat, Rev Raptors, Command Wolf and Jenner IIC quickly got inside, but they had to deactivate or get located.

            "Amy, we're gonna have to pick you up from your ejection pod," Mark said.

            "What about the Command Wolf?"

            "It's not as important as your life!"

            "Alright, tell me when to eject," she said, and kept a constant trajectory. In a few minutes, she broke out of the forest and was back on open terrain. The _Nova Cluster_ would be on top of her in seconds. "Where are you?!" Amy said impatiently.

            "Eject in ten seconds" Mark informed her.

            Amy counted down in her head, feeling the jolts of the MPPC's that were now pounding her aft. They must have hit a joint, because suddenly, the Command Wolf fell to the ground. Amy looked around and saw the _Nova Cluster_ surrounding her. One of them loomed close enough to her cockpit for her to see his face.

            _Ten!_ She pulled the chord as her eyes registered what she saw. Black coverall. Dark eyes. Dark hair.

            The thought perished as soon as it had come, and she found herself ascending into the air. Suddenly, she was surrounded by darkness and the world beneath her shrunk. It then was framed by a rectangle of darkness that was slowly closing. Cathy opened a panel that led to the landing gear compartment and helped Amy out. Amy smiled warmly at Cathy, feeling good that she had made it, but Cathy's expression screamed that something was wrong.

            "What happened?" Amy asked.

            "Its Joanna…"

***

            _I think I've seen that woman before_, Victor thought at he neared the cockpit. Before his thoughts could progress, the pilot suddenly ejected and went into a black hole in the sky; something cloaked, no doubt.

            "Dammit" he said. The team leader told them to try to salvage the Command Wolf, but it self-destructed, sending a few of the soldiers hurling a few hundred feet away. The _Nova Cluster_ went back to their post on the convoy. They went to their mobile barracks and quietly waited as the latest shipload of satellite equipment was being sent to space. The convoy made it to the spaceport without incident, and they unloaded their cargo in a heavily fortified processing unit.

            _What's so important about this shipment?_ Victor thought. _And why did the _Rouges_ want to destroy it so bad?_ He had to know. As the cargo trucks unloaded, Victor activated his x-ray scanner and scanned the package.

            _Holy SHIT_

***

Wow, that was long. Very, very long compared to any of my other chapters. I think this'll be the longest chapter I have or will write for this story. I should break it up, but I think it flows too smoothly.

Well… what's inside that package? The first live animal to be sent into space??? Read the next chapter to see (if I'm nice). 

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	9. Chapter Nine: Reanimation

Here Without You, Baby 

Chapter Nine: Reanimation

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior

***

Fade in and out of reason to fight the way she's feelin'   
She brakes down - brakes down   
Going through the motions and holding onto hopes   
and her dreams now - somehow   
Shaken, mistaken, forsaken, it's killing me.   
Wishing you could change, but he's always been this way   
If you leave now - I'll drown   
  
Will you, Will you love me tomorrow?   
So Will You, Will you stay with me today?   
Will you, Will you be here tomorrow?   
So Will You, you remember yesterday?

P.O.D. (Will You)

***

            It was her again. She would never stop haunting me in my dreams I don't know what I did to her, but she kept on coming over, and over. This time we were in a chapel. I uncovered the veil over her face, and I leaned forward to kiss…

"Victor," Marlene said softly. I opened my eyes and saw her lying next to me, illuminated by the strong white light from the sun filtered by the white covers. She had a weird look on her face.

"What?" I said groggily.

"You never said that before."

"Said what?"

"You don't know?" she said, puzzled. My silence answered her. She pouted, but I didn't give in. "Why do I even put up with you?" she said in dismay, and pulled the covers off of us.

"I love you?" I finally said.

"Yes!" she said excitedly.

"That's it?" I asked disappointedly. "That's what you were so worked up about?"

"You aren't romantic at all!" she said, throwing a pillow at me and changed into her uniform.

***

We were there instantly. We all took the heaviest Zoid or HEV we had, and fought the invaders. The Blitz team had been exposed, and they were being attacked. Seymour and Joanna were in the Iron Kongs, and went to the base to take out anyone who had managed to get past the defenses. I had the Kodiak, Renee had the Diashi, and James had the Mad Cat, and we were in the front lines with the Liger, Raynos and Gun Sniper. Catherine was in the Liger X and was running around, slicing anyone in her way. Mark stayed in the _X_ and gave aerial support.

The Terrans were well prepared. They had hundreds of Legions and Demantis on the ground and had Zabats bombing the bunker. They also had MadThunders at a distance giving artillery support.

"We can't handle all these guys by ourselves!" Joanna said, annihilating a Demantis that was burrowing into the closed blast doors.

"Don't worry, Naomi and Harry said that they were coming to help." Jamie said. Jamie was the leader of the Blitz team now. The Doc had died when the Terrans had captured him while they were setting up this base. Now it was useless since they knew where it was.

"Well, they better come soon!" Catherine said, killing a Legion that was trying to destroy the defense system's power grid.

The battle ensued, and the Terrans pushed forward. Heaps of melted and destroyed piles of metal and armor dotted the surrounding area as Terran after Terran fell. But those damn MadThunder kept on firing.

And suddenly they stopped. Joanna, who with Seymour had joined the front lines, used her specs to see what was going on. The MadThunder lay strewn over the ground, their legs and weapons chopped off; some had large holes in them.

"Hey, I think they're here!" Joanna told everyone. Her thoughts were confirmed when she saw a red Gun Sniper take a position on a nearby hill.

"Took them long enough," Leena complained, going to the back of the front, since her Zoid was out of ammo and almost destroyed.

"There's Harry's team too!" Catherine said, noticing them coming from behind. Quickly, the Demantis and Legions were wiped out, but the Zabats kept coming.

"I've found the source of the Zabats!" Amy said.

"Where?" Joanna demanded.

"Thirty degrees east!" Joanna looked at that direction and saw three black Whale Kings. They were now approaching us, and fast.

"Get ready guys, those Whale Kings are about to attack!" everyone took shelter in the protected parts of the bunker and waited for the impending assault. But the assault never came.

"What's taking so long?" Cathy complained. As she said that, blue crystals appeared and danced in front of us. They moved about randomly, but were slowly approaching us. "Huh? What're those?"

Suddenly, a wall of MPPC fire burst out of the dancing crystals and took everyone by surprise. "Its those damn _Nova Cluster_ again!" Seymour said angrily.

"Shit, everyone get out of here!"

"But then the Whale Kings will get us…" Renee said.

"Do you want to die here doing nothing, or out there at least trying?" Joanna said, and made a break for the open terrain before them. The rest of us followed. 

"Joanna, Harry's and my team are almost in position to take those Whale Kings out. Just move around for a little bit and they'll be gone," Naomi radioed.

"Easy for you to say…" Joanna said under her breath. The _Rogues_ scurried about the field, dodging fire from both Whale Kings and the _Nova Cluster_ in space mode. All the assault HEV's and Zoids were particularly at a disadvantage because we were so slow, so we had to rely on our micro thrusters that we had jury rigged for the hot drop that we made into the battle. The Blitz team did fine though, since Bit took Leena into the Liger and their fast Zoids were maneuverable and could easily dodge the fire.

"We're in position!" Naomi announced. A few seconds later, explosions could be heard overhead as one of the three Whale Kings fell. The other two stopped firing and were probably looking for who shot them. The second one fell, following another set of explosions. Realizing it was otherwise done for, the third Whale King made a run for it, but was heavily damaged as Harry's and Naomi's team made their last rounds.

The _Nova Cluster_ also stopped firing and tried to catch up to the retreating Whale King, but all the teams present picked them off, one by one. Unfortunately, they had their most powerful mode manifested, so only one of them lost flight. The others made it away, but one of them came back to try and save his comrade. Gauss Rifle slugs and a hail of missiles greeted him.

"We captured two of those mangy little bastards!" Mark said joyously.

"Where the **** were you this whole time?!" Joanna demanded.

"Man, there was a squadron of Storm Sworders that were harassing me," he complained, "but I made good work of them."

"Well, you still suck at being aerial support!"

All the parties met in the Blitz teams former base just to take a rest from the long battle. Mark and James went to secure the prisoners, and the rest just caught up on old times. Harry proposed to Leena, who unsurprisingly did not accept. "Just cause you saved me, doesn't mean I'm going to marry you!" she blurted. Undaunted, Harry tried wooing her again…

"So Naomi, how're things going with you guys?" Cathy asked.

"We're fine!" she said, referring to her and Brad. The two had gotten hitched after Naomi's pregnancy. "Junior is growing up so fast!" she added, and showed pictures of him to the girls. Joanna stood up and left. "Oh, I forgot…" she apologized to the group.

After the attack on the spaceport convoy, Joanna had miscarried. The battle, and the unexpected attack had been too much. It was a full week before she left her room, and an entire month before she was back to her former self.

***

(Blitz team's prison block)

            "How the hell do you take these things off?" Seymour asked. He and Mark were working on disengaging the prisoner's HES's "I have an idea," he said and took out a long wire, sticking one end to a nearby battery.

            "What are you doing?" Mark asked.

            "I think that if I can get enough juice into the CORE module, I can get it to short out and reset."

            "So?"

            "That should make the armor come off," he said, and did it. The first person was actually a lady, a blonde one. The CORE module fell off, smoking a bit, and Mark collected it.

            "Hubba hubba…" Seymour joked.

            "Now what would Joanna do if she happened to come in right now?"

            "Ahhh… shaddap" he said, New York style. He electrocuted the next person.

            The scales slowly receded and revealed his face. He was wearing a black jumpsuit with Terran marks.

            "Oh my God…" Mark said.

            "Dammit. What the hell!" Seymour said and was about to kick the person.

            "No. Don't do that."

            "I should kill him right here!" Seymour said angrily.

            "I know how you feel, but we can't do that. Yet."

            "But we have to tell everyone. Including Amy."

            "I don't know if we should. I mean it's been two years, and I think she's finally forgotten about him…"

            "Even so, we have to wait before we do anything. This isn't just some person. This is Crass."

~

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	10. Chapter Ten: I Am, Whoever You Say I Am

Here Without You, Baby

Chapter Ten: I Am, Whoever You Say I Am

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior
    
    ***
    
    I don't want you to give it all up
    
    and leave your own life collecting dust
    
    and I don't want you to feel sorry for me
    
    you never gave us a chance to be
    
    And I don't need you to be by my side
    
    and tell me that everythings all right
    
    I just wanted you to tell me the truth
    
    You know I'd do that for you
    
    So why are you running away?
    
    Why are you running away?

-Hoobastank (Running Away)****

***

There was a lone tree in the meadow. It was a really big tree; I think it was a few thousand years old. It was blossoming, and when the gentle breezes caressed its lush foliage, pink petals danced in the air. Maybe they were Sakura blossoms. I went up to it. It was surrounded by very tall grass and many wild flowers. The flowers were also blossoming; red, blue, yellow and magenta dotted the meadow.

The tree had many scars on it. It looked like it had been in a fire recently. A nervous squirrel quickly scaled the tree as I approached, scattering the remains of an acorn it had cracked over the ground. I lay on the ground within the shade of the tree. I looked up to the purple sky and saw the bright blue sun filtering through the tree's foliage. The sky looked completely clear, its emptiness disturbed only by the young birds chasing each other. There was a small blue moon rising from the eastern sky.

I looked to my right and she was lying next to me. She noticed me staring and turned to look at me. She mouthed something to me, but I couldn't hear her. I felt myself say something, but I couldn't hear it also. She gave me a devilish look. She stood up and sat on me. I felt myself say something, and she lightly hit my chest with a pouty look on her face. I put my arms around her back and slowly drew her in. Our faces got closer and I felt myself say something. She blushed.

I love you… 

***

               For once I woke up first. Marlene lay strewn over the ground, clothes ruffled. _If they even laid a finger on her…_They also managed to take our CORE modules off. We were truly in a hopeless situation. I went up to Marlene and gently tried to wake her up.

               "Hey," I softly said to her as she opened her eyes.

               "What happened?"

               "We got caught," I said as cheerfully as I could.

               "Why'd you wait for me?"

               "You think I'd leave you alone?" I said, and held her hand. After a few minutes of quiet, she went back to sleep.

***

               "Joanna?" Seymour said, as he approached his lover. She was sobbing in a corner with Cathy.

               "Hey…" she said weakly.

               "I think you should interrogate the prisoners now."

               "What kind of boyfriend are you?" Cathy snarled. "Can't you see that she's hurting right now?"

               "I know, Cathy, but this is really important," Seymour said. He whispered something into Joanna's ear.

               "WHAT?!" Joanna said in shock. "We have to tell Amy!"

               "No, not until we get some answers."

               "Alright. I'll go right now," she said, and scampered off to the prison block, escorted by her beloved.

               "This must be really good if it could bring Joanna out of her funk," Cathy said, and started to follow the two.

               "Wait, you can't go!" Mark said, stopping her with his hand… which happened to fall upon her bosom. It was a full minute before either of them reacted.

               Out in the main room, where the teams were gathered, they heard a sharp slap.

***

               There he was, tending to some woman. _He was fraternizing with the enemy the whole time? What the hell is going on here?_

               "You, come out," Joanna ordered Crass.

               "I won't leave her," he said firmly.

               "Then we'll do this the hard way. James…"

               James went into the cell and easily lifted Crass a foot over the ground. He struggled, but he couldn't break James' vice-like grip.

               At that time, Marlene woke up again, and begged Victor not to leave him.

               "Marlene!" he cried.

               _Victor?_ Joanna thought.

               The interrogation room was very simple. It was a 10'x10' room with a square table in the middle and two chairs; there was a dim light on the ceiling. Crass sat on a chair with James behind him, while Joanna sat on the other end with Seymour behind her.

               "What's your name?"

               "Why the hell should I tell you?"

               "I'm saying this only one more time, what's your name?"

               Crass stood silent. "James?" Joanna cued. James grabbed Crass' left arm and twisted it.

               "Alright! Alright!" he moaned and James let go, the discomfort obvious in his face. Crass sat down and regained his posture.

               "My name is Victor Alehandros Emanuel Morales," he stated.

               "James," Joanna motioned. Crass' faced turned to one of horror.

               "I mean it!" he cowered.

               "Rank?"

               "Number three of _Nova Cluster_."

               "When did you join the Terran armed forces?"

               "I think about two years ago," he sais. _That's when he disappeared, _Joanna thought.

               "What did you do before you joined?" Crass' face became glazed. They waited a few minutes, but he said nothing, lost in his own world. "Answer me!"

               "I don't know!" he said, sobbing. "I don't know…" he repeated weakly.

               "Why don't you know?"

               "When they found me, I was in the rainforest. I was hanging in the air because of some parachute that was holding me. Then Marlene found me…"

               "Is Marlene the woman you were with?"

               "Yes."

               "James."

               "No!" he cringed, but instead of breaking his arm, James went over to her. She whispered something to him and he left.

               "I just told him to send our medic to that woman in case anything happened to her."

               "You didn't do that before!" he said, standing up. Seymour had a gun pointed to him instantly.

               "Don't think, not even for a second, that just because you're you, that we will hesitate to use this."

               "Seymour!"

               "Sorry," he said, but kept the gun up.

               "So, are you saying that you had amnesia?"

               "I guess."

               "Did you go to the hospital? What injuries did you have?"

               "I had a bunch of small cuts from the leaves and a few bruises from the branches, but they were nothing compared to the injury I had on the back of my head."

               "Back of your head?"

               "I had this huge bump on the back of my head, and the doctors said that I would need to have a plate put into it to replace the bones that gone shattered."

               Joanna sat quietly, processing this information.

               "You say that you have amnesia, correct?"

               "I guess…"

               "Then how do you know your full name?"

               "…" Crass sat there, thinking back. "It just seemed really familiar. I felt like that name was my name since I used it so much."

               "And how do you know you used it so much?"

               "I don't know. I just had this feeling."

               James came back, making Crass cringe. He handed something to her.

               "Do you know why you were in that forest, 'Victor'?"

               "No. And why are you so interested anyway? What Terran secrets could you possibly find out?" he demanded. She ignored him.

               "How would you like me to tell you?"

               Crass stood there in shock. _Can she really tell me who I was?_

               "I don't know about this Joanna," Seymour protested. James, who had just returned, gestured the same.

               "He's entitled to know who he is," Joanna opened the package that James had brought. It was a picture book full of old pictures. She took one out and showed it to Crass.

               "Do you agree that this is you?" she said, handing him the shot. It was a picture of him standing next to the _X_ with his HES on its space mode.

               "Yeah…" he said "But I don't ever remember being near a ship like that," she handed him another picture.

               "Do you agree that that is you on the side?"

               "Yes" he said in disbelief. It was a picture of him shaking hands with a Xi'an. She handed him a bunch of pictures this time.

               "Do you agree that that is you in these pictures?" He went through them, and saw pictures of him having fun with the _Rogues._ He stopped when he got up to a certain picture, recognition on his face. 

               "Who's this?" he said, showing her the picture. It was a picture of him sleeping upright on a couch with Amy leaning on him. Seymour had a bucket of water over the two…

               "Do you remember her?"

               "I… I've seen her in my dreams." Joanna let out a sigh.

               "'Victor', are you sure that you want me to tell you who you are? Because once I tell you, there's no turning back."

               Victor gave it some thought. He kept on looking at the picture with him and Amy sleeping peacefully next to each other. After thinking for a while, he made up his mind.

               "Who am I?"

***

hahahaa, so evil to stop here…

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	11. Chapter Eleven: Fireworks

Here Without You, Baby 

Chapter Eleven: Fireworks

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior

***

It's not like you didn't know that   
I said I love you and I swear I still do   
It must have been so bad   
Cause livin' with me must have damn near killed you

This is how you remind me   
Of what I really am   
This is how you remind me   
Of what I really am   
It's not like you to say sorry   
I was waiting on a different story   
This time I'm mistaken   
For handing you a heart worth breakin'

-Nickelback (How You Remind Me)

***

"Who am I?" he said firmly.

            "Alright," Joanna said. She took a short hiatus, thinking over where she should start. "First of all, you are not Victor Alehandros Emanuel Morales."

            "Then what's my name?"

            "Your real name is Crass Fisheye."

            "Fisheye?"

            "_I_ didn't name you," she said defensively. "Anyway, this 'Victor' whom you confused yourself with was your childhood friend. He died by Xi'an hands when you first arrived to this system."

            Something went through Crass' head, because suddenly his face showed pain.

            "Victor…" he said, a tear falling down his cheek. "Then it's a good thing that those filthy scum were wiped out!" he said angrily.

            "Then you will be surprised to hear this. After staying on the surface with that woman," she said, referring to Amy, "you were nearly killed by an explosion from a CT-808 Zit-"

            "What the hell! Those things were permanently banned!" Crass said.

            "But was teleported to Xi'an territories," she continued, ignoring the interruption. "You traveled among some of their home systems with the said lady, and finally made a temporary base on one of their periphery territories. You then organized this unit to take General Molotov out of power."

            "But why?" Crass said, thinking back to the time when he was certified to use an HES.

            "It's because it was he who ordered that Zit to be fired near you. It was he that made the death camps on this planet."

            "But those were just rumors…" Joanna slapped some pictures in front of him.

            "This is the Northeastern 'Gulag.' It is a secret installation that has killed hundreds of thousands. Our mission is to expose and neutralize it." He looked through the gruesome pictures.

            "He… he… how could someone do something like this?"

            "Now Crass. You are the leader of this unit," she said. A look of surprise came over him when he saw her face grow tired. "Will you take back your position?"

            "M-m-me?"

            "Yes you."

            "Why me?"

            "You're the one who made this freaking unit!!!"

            "Oh yeah…"

            "You really are crass… no wonder your parents named you Crass"

            "Huh?"

            "Are you going to join or not? Well, maybe we should let you sleep on it."

            "Its okay, I've made up my mind a long time ago," he said. The _Rogues_ looked disappointed. "And I will."

            "What? But how could you have made up your mind before about this."

            "Well, I wasn't sure about this before, but these photos of that gulag have removed those doubts…"

            "What?" Joanna said, interested.

            "Remember that time when you guys attacked that convoy, and the _Nova Cluster_ met you for the first time?"

            "Yes."

            "Well, the package that the convoy was transporting was a Aurora XG1 type III reactor."

            "WHAT!?" Seymour yelped, disbelieving.

            "What's an Aurora whatever-the-hell-he-just-said?

            "Its basically a really powerful generator," Crass said.

            "So? Weather satellites need power, don't they?"

            "True, but this is a military make, and a Terran one to boot. It uses a combination of cold-fusion and matter-antimatter reactors. It's very rare; the Terran industry can make only one or two per year, but it can sustain itself for centuries before needing its fuel replenished. And a type III generator powers only one thing, an orbital defense array."

            "How will that affect us?" Joanna said, still not buying it.

            "Do you know what a CPC emission can do?" Crass said.

            "Yeah"

            "Imagine something that can shoot something ten times as more powerful, with a blast radius of over 50 feet!" Seymour finished.

            "Oh my God…" Joanna said. "We have to take that out. There's no telling what the Terrans will do with something that powerful."

            "I can tell you what they have done with it," Crass said darkly. "It just so happened that most of the Xi'an were congregated on their main homeworld's capital the day Molotov invaded their system. He had on of those on his flag ship…"

            "On my God…" Joanna repeated, hand covering her mouth. "Crass, we need you back. We'll be in deep shit without you."

            "I know. And like I said, I will take Molotov out. Like I said to the Xi'an all those years ago," he started, memories flooding back, "'I promise that I'll get Molotov. He'll pay for all he's done…'" 

***

            They released Crass and sent him back to Marlene.

            "What are we gonna do about Amy? If she sees him with her…" Seymour said to Joanna as they left the cell.

            "I don't know. But she has to know that this isn't the Crass that she lost two years ago."

            "How's she doing… Renee, right?"

            "Yeah. I'm glad to have you back," she hesitated, "commander. A-and she's just fine. She has a minor concussion that'll clear up in a few days." Obviously James had filled her in on the new developments when he summoned her.

            "Thanks," he said, as she left.

            "Commander?" Marlene questioned.

            "You wont believe what I just heard…" Crass said to her, and gave her a brief recap of what had just happened.

            "And you believed all that crap?" she said jokingly.

            "They weren't lying," he said, and showed her the picture of him with the Xi'an and the group picture with the _Rogues_. "And guess what, like that medic said, I'm their _commander_"

            "You can't be serious. Are you saying that I've been sleeping with the enemy's leader?" Crass nodded. Suddenly, her face became hostile and she moved away from him.

            "So you were there just to infiltrate us? This was all a trick?" she said desperately.

            "No. This wasn't a trick. I really did lose my memory. The Victor that you met dangling in the forest loved you, Marlene. _I_ love you," he said, holding her hand. She held onto it for a few seconds, but threw it away.

            "I bet your name isn't even Victor!"

            "Actually…"

            "Oh my God! Who are you? What have I gotten myself into…" she said, sobbing.

            "Who am I? I'm still that person you've shared your most intimate secrets with for the last two years. I'm still that person that got you into the _Nova Cluster_. I'm still the man that loves you," she stopped crying, and looked into his eyes. After a little bit, they leaned forward and hugged. "Don't leave me again," she said, sobbing again.

            "I'll never leave you again, I promise," the sound of metal hitting concrete broke the ensuing silence and another person running away, crying, could be heard.

***

            "What are our plans, 'boss'?" Mark said, emphasizing the boss. Crass had been with the unit for a few weeks now, and they were certain that he was back to himself again. At least he remembered enough about himself so that they could be sure that he truly harbored hatred for the Terrans. He said that Marlene would _have_ to be his partner; otherwise, he wouldn't take his old duties once again. When all was agreed upon, Joanna gratefully relinquished command. But no one was certain over what to do with Amy. Not even Cathy could talk to her about it.

            "We have to get into space and somehow destroy that satellite before its operational." Crass stated. "Joanna has made contact with our highest infiltrators in their command and they have found out that the generator in question was indeed transported to the satellite. They have further told us that it isn't a satellite; it's a station. It does transmit meteorological data, but it has higher capacities. Unfortunately, we don't know what."

            "Then lets go up there and blast it to hell with the _X_," Seymour said.

            "Its not that easy. The stationary orbital defenses on the planet would shoot us down before we even got into firing range. And that does not take into account the defense satellites they already have."

            "Then what do we do?" Molly asked.

            "We're gonna take over a few of those orbital defenses and use it on them. The Blitz team, Harry's and Naomi's team, the Desert Foxes and Hell's Hounds have said that they will cooperate. Other teams will cover us and keep reinforcements at bay until we are done. Our plan is to take at least three of the six orbital defenses in this region and fire them on the satellite when it is on the dark side, when it will have to rely completely on battery and generator power. Joanna," he said, handing it over to her.

            "This time, we will have two teams. But the Zoid and HEV pilots will not distract, but obliterate the base defense. The infiltration team will have to take over the base. That's why we will have only one Zoid, one HEV, and the _X_ for aerial support."

            "But don't you think that's too few combatants on the surface?"

            "Normally I would, but these bases have more manual defense than mechanized. That is why we need as large a group as possible to infiltrate. Also, the mechanized unit's primary objective is to take out as many power and defensive structures as possible. The ground team will split up into two. They will enter at two points of entry and take out as many people as possible."

            "What? We can't just kill people like that!" Amy protested.

            "This is war, Amy and we can't just stop because there are people in the way," Crass said.

            "But there has to be another way…"

            "Maybe there is. But we don't have the _time_ to find out," he said coldly. "But if you have any ideas, you're welcome to suggest them."

            "… so that's how it is," she said simply, and stayed quiet for the rest of the meeting. Everyone except Crass and Mark could sense the tension.

***

            Amy piloted an Iron Kong, while Catherine would pilot the Daishi and would be dropped by the _X_. Crass, Seymour and Joanna were in team one, while Marlene, Renee, James and Molly were in the other team. They would be dropped off by the ATT, which would be on autopilot. Crass and Marlene had their HES's, so they would lead the teams.

            The teams were done prepping, and were getting ready to board the _X_, when Joanna gave word of something one of their spies had found.

            "What's going on?" Crass asked.

            "One of our infiltrators has reported that the satellite will make a test fire in thirty minutes."

            "Where?"

            "In the Legatos area, near the Chaos March."

            "We better go check it out then," Joanna said.

            "Shouldn't we just attack them while they're busy?" Mark asked. "It should take a little bit of time for them to recharge."

            "But it's very little time. Type III generators are _very_ powerful. Very powerful indeed," Seymour said.

            "So we might as well see the fireworks?"

            "Yes, I think we'll need the time to cool off. This week was hell."

***

            The _Rogues_ took three unmarked military Hummers (armed with MPPC cannons) that they had stolen and rode to the site. They arived in a few hours and all stepped out waited. In a few moments, they saw a bright light approaching.

            "There it is!" Mark said excitedly. The clouds turned purple as the energy emission got closer and closer to the target zone. After a few seconds of wait, they got impatient.

            "Where is it?" Crass demanded. "I've seen Gogulases move faster then that!" 

The emission broke through the cloud cover and exposed itself. It was basically a purple ball of energy the got darker the closer you looked at the center, so dark that half the inside radius seemed to be pitch black. It fluttered around in a random pattern of movement, but steadily held the same average trajectory. It was a full thirty seconds before it made impact.

            But the impact was extraordinary. As it neared the ground, static electricity could be seen sparking to the ground. It was so charged, the clounds overhead suddenly rained lightnighbolts around the local area, starting a few flash fires. Then the ball exploded with a distinct "pop." The explosion went through the whole electromagnetic spectrum and finally ended with a vacuum with force enough to suck them in, even at the distance they were in.

            "Damn…" was all Crass could say.

***

"Operation a success!" one of the scientists reported to Admiral Molotov. "M2 is certified to be ready to use in mass scale."

"Excellent. But I want it observed for a longer duration. We don't know what it will do in the long run."

"Yes sir, Mr. Molotov, sir!" the scientist said, and left the Admiral.

_Who would think that a five million year old artifact could spawn something that could do so much?_ Molotov thought to himself. _Well, I'll get those _Rogues _yet…_

***

That was no ordinary CPC emission. What will the _Rogues_ do now? And what about Amy?

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	12. Chapter Eleven 2: He Who I Hold Most Dea...

Here Without You, Baby 

Chapter Eleven 2: He Who I Hold Most Dear

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior

This short half-chapter is dedicated for Amy. This half-chapter explains why Amy didn't show much emotion last chapter (think of it as happening as chapter 11 happened), and what she was doing (it barely mentions her last chapter. It does diverge from the story a lot, so that's why I'm making it a half-chapter. But don't fret! It does have something to do with future chapters.

~

            Cameron city. Not wasn't a major city, but it had a good nightlife. Excellent jazz wherever you turned and dance floors known to get really wild. Corruption ran high and there was barely any semblance of a police force. The only reason you didn't get robbed was if you could make that month's protection money. It was also the closest friendly city near the _Rogues'_ base.

            The alleys were the most dangerous. Blocked off on three sides by old, crumbling wall, if one were to get trapped, there was nowhere to run. No God to turn to.

            "Hey, this is the hottest stuff out," the thug said, trying to hustle some of his drugs. The potential buyer just nervously walked away, obviously trying not to get messed up with that kind of business. The hustler sighed and took another drink from his bottle of beer, stalking back into the darkness of the alley. He sat down with a thud; business had gone sour ever since the bar hustlers came into the picture. Protection money was too much and all he got were the leftovers. He took another drink.

            Between gulps, he noticed something going around him. The air had the faint smell of ozone. Suddenly, lightning started dancing in the wind (which shouldn't have been there in the first place) and the nearby dumpster started sparkling. A long dead light bulb suddenly illuminated and exploded as the gas within superheated. All became dark once again. The thug finished his last gulp. And then the glowing red eyes stared at him.

~

            Amy just ran. She couldn't think of anything else so she followed her first instinct; she took flight. She took a jeep and headed for Cameron city, and here she was, in a bar trying to drink her problems away. She stared at the empty glass before her. She was about to order another drink, but the waiter gave one to her.

            "Compliments of that gentleman," he said, pointing to a man in a dark corner. He got up and sat next to her.

            "Thanks for the drink," she mumbled.

            "You look like you really needed it. You wanna talk?" he said. _These city people are so low,_ Amy thought. _He thinks I'm a poor defenseless girl that will do anything for a shoulder to cry on._

            "No," she said flatly.

            "Well, I would," he said.

            "Thanks, but no thanks," Amy said coldly, sipping at her drink.

            "You know, you remind me of someone I used to know," he said, and got up. Amy stole a peek at his face. It seemed old, even tired from this close. His eyes were obviously those that used to burn with passion, but now they were dull, dead. He had a thin smile on his lips.

            "Wait," Amy suddenly said, holding onto his hand. _What am I doing?_

            "I thought so. You wanna talk somewhere a little more private?" _I knew it!_ He pointed to an empty table in a dark corner. _Oh…_

            The two slowly walked to the table and the man pulled out Amy's seat for her, like a real gentleman. He took his own seat and lit a cigarette.

            "You know, those things aren't good for you," Amy said. He took a deep puff and let go away from Amy.

            "That's right, you probably've never smoked before, have you?" he said. "It a lot safer then drinking, I'll give you that. At least you still have control over yourself." He offered a fresh one to her. She accepted and inhaled deeply. She felt like her lungs were on fire and coughed for a full thirty seconds.

            "Don't matter 'bout me. I'll be dead before my time anyway," he said as Amy was recovering. "You on, the other hand, still have your whole life ahead of you."

            "Speak for yourself, you don't seem that much older then me."

            "Well, I'm about… let's see…" he started counting his fingers. "Twenty seven last month."

            "You still have your whole life left too, you know!" Amy said. He just looked back at her with those tired, dull eyes. He seemed like he was ready to die. As she stared into them, she felt a degree of safety and familiarity. Like a father figure almost. Amy was suddenly reminded of all the people she had lost.

            "Must have been very hard on you," he said. Amy felt something wet going down her cheeks.

~

            Amy talked with the stranger till nearly three in the morning. Around that time, he gave innuendos that she should leave, and he escorted her to her jeep, after making sure she was sober enough. She had really opened up to him, explaining how she first met Crass all the way up to seeing him with that woman, not caring that he could get her caught. Surprisingly, he took it well, as if were something everyone else knew. They agreed to meet in the same bar around eleven and they had been drinking together ever since.

            She found out that his name was Zephyr Cathul, and he was part of the government's special unit known as the D-Knights. She had no idea what that was, so she assumed it was something very covert. He assured her that she was not exposing herself, and something in the way he looked at her compelled her to believe him; at least for now.

            He also opened up a bit. He was a seasoned veteran and had lost someone very important to him a few years ago, one of his comrades; his lover. He kept commenting how similar Amy was to her and how easy it was to talk to her. Amy said she was already married, thinking that he was making a move on her, jeopardizing the relationship they had just made. It was then that he said this one odd comment to her: That when you make those wedding vows 'Till death do us part,' to never give up hope on it and to see it through to the bitter end. He said it in a way that made it sound like he knew something and wasn't telling her, but that was impossible. She had just met him and there was no way he could know more then she told him.

            Last night he told her not to give up on the bond between her and Crass. That if she waited long enough, he would come back to her. She found it hard to believe, seeing that he was truly in love with Marlene, but he said there was always a way. He told her, bluntly, 'confront your demons head on, lest you lose that which you hold most dear.' Again, she thought he was hiding something. She found it odd that he befriended her so quickly.

            But she didn't care at all. She was in a very good mood, the best she probably had been for some time now. She didn't know if her friends noticed yet, but her step was a little lighter, her smile a little warmer. When she was with Zephyr, it was like she was in a state of pure bliss, as if she were with a lover…

            It was ten forty-five and Zephyr was late. They agreed to meet at eleven, but he was always here before her. Screams filled the room as gas started pouring in. People covered their eyes as the tear gas was rapidly filling the room. A SWAT-like force was raiding the place. Reality is a bitch.

            _I knew it! _Amy thought angrily. _He sold me out! What was I thinking, telling him about the team?_ She thought back to those moments when he seemed to know more then meets the eye. _I can see him now, laughing at the broken girl he was playing with the whole time._

            "Get down!" someone whispered to her. All this time, she was still sitting on the bar stool as all hell broke lose. "_Get down here _now_!_" the voice said more urgently and grabbed her arm, pulling her to the bartender's side.

            "Thanks-" she started and couldn't believe who she saw. "Zephyr?"

            "Who'd you expect?"

            "I thought you-"

            "Sold you out? No way, I could never sell _you_ out-" he said, his voice suggesting he stopped mid-sentence. He put his hands around her face, studying it thoroughly, as if he were trying to memorize it. He fixed his eyes with hers. His eyes seemed to pierce into her soul, captivating her in a very familiar way; its dullness was replaced by some passionate fire. "Come on, let's go," he said, motioning for them to go through the back door; there was a sudden sense of longing in his voice. Unfortunately, they were caught by one of the police.

            "Halt!" he said, firing before the words parted from his lips. The two broke out into a sprint and ran through the alley. Amy held onto Zephyr's hand for dear life, willing him to keep up with her. They reached a fork in their path. "Which way do we go?" Amy said, desperate to get out of there.

            "You go that way," Zephyr said, pointing to the left. "I'll wait for them and lead them this way, so you have a chance to escape."

            "Wait, what about you?" she said.

            "I'll just get court-martialed, no biggie," he said, his face saying otherwise.

            "I can't just let you do this," Amy cried. "You can't just give up without fighting, Crass wouldn't…" she said, tears streaming down her face. _Why did I just say that?_

            He held onto her in a vice-like grip, forcing him to look at his eyes once more. "Amy, you wont understand this for some time now, but you _must_ survive. There are some forces that are at work, even the Xi'an-" He stopped. Amy's heart skipped a beat. "-and it all depends on you surviving this. Amy, forget me, I'm a dead man," he said, tearing. "As long as you make it out okay, this will be worth it. Amy, you don't know how much you mean to me."

            "How did you know about the Xi-" she started, but he wraped an arm around her waist, pulling her in and suddenly kissed her. The embrace made Amy feel giddy like she used to feel, but he stopped as suddenly as he started. "You'll know about everything soon, just go," he said, giving her a slight push. She stood there, unsure about what to do. 

"But… but I just found you!"

"GO!" he screamed, hearing footsteps approaching; he brandished a gun. Amy lingered for one last second and looked into those eyes. They were no longer dull or burning with passion, but content. Like he had done something he was waiting his whole life for. "Promise yourself you will survive!" he suddenly hollered. "PROMISE!" She ran away.

            She hadn't run for more than fifteen seconds when she heard the gunshots. She was about to turn back, but realized it would have all been meaningless if she did. She ran to her jeep, a trail of salty tears followed her.

            When she got back to base, Cathy knew something made Amy upset. When she tried comforting her, Amy just burst into tears. _I've lost everyone, _she thought darkly. _I should just end it all now…_ she thought. 'Promise me you will survive,' suddenly popped into her head. _I will, Zephyr, if only for you sake,_ she thought between sobs. Amy calmed down a bit and resolved not to give up, no matter how grim the odds became. Something also told her to never mention Zephyr to anyone else.

~

            The man with the tired eyes was propped up against the cell wall, the gunshot wound on his leg still undressed. He stared longingly into the sky, trying to seek peace with himself.

            _I'm sorry for deceiving you Amy, but I couldn't tell you who I really was. May God forgive me for what I have done! _

_I just hope… I just… hope… that… that you will survive for me… I've already lost you once… I could barely take losing you again…_ he thought placing a hand to his smiling lips. The hand slowly caressed them and then fell, drooping on his side. 

That night, a new star appeared in the sky.

~

~sigh~

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	13. Chapter Twelve: Code Name: M2

Here Without You, Baby 

Chapter Twelve: Code Name: M2

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior

***

            "We _cannot_ let Molotov use that weapon on anyone. EVER." Crass said, disturbed by what he saw.

            "That wasn't from any kind of charged particle cannon I've ever seen." Joanna noted. "Heck, I've _never_ seen that. Usually, Terran weaponry has a really fast firing rate that has a small area of affect. But this weapon is slow with an extremely large area of affect."

            "Whatever it is, we're taking it down," Crass said, going into the driver's seat of his Hummer. The _Rogues_ followed and they all headed back to their base. They all went into the _X_ and finally approached their target site.

            "All the other teams are in position," Joanna reported. "We'll all attack at 0000 hours."

            "Good. Mark, set us down near the front of their base."

            "Aye, aye commander," Mark said. The _X_ touched down and everyone went into the lounge to wait the half an hour remaining. Marlene went to the door and beckoned Crass.

            "What's up?" he said, wrapping his arms around her.

            "We're gonna get lucky today," she said, beaming a smile. Scales covered her face.

            "What the hell?!" Crass said, stepping back, taken by surprise. Marlene was in the HES's space mode and had her primary gun pointed at the _Rogues_.

            "That's our mission Crass. To take out the _Rogues_ by _any_ means necessary."

            "Marlene! What are you doing?!" Crass said, trying to get in her way.

            "It was brilliant of you to pretend that you were their commander, letting them think you were actually on their side," she said. "But I think we've pretended enough. Its time to do our job," she said. The sound of her MPPC charging made everyone panic.

            "So that was it? This was all a charade?" Amy suddenly burst out. "You come out of nowhere, expecting us to take you back in, and this was all just a farce?!"

            "No, I really meant to go after Molotov," Crass said, pleading to Amy for reasons he did not understand; he turned to Marlene. "Marlene, stop this foolishness. You'll get someone hurt!"

            "So that's how it is? Well, either you're with the Admiral Molotov and I," she said. "Or with this filth and your girlfriend!" she said, her face suddenly distorted with hate.

            "Marlene, what are you talking about?!" Crass said, desperate to get his love to clam down.

            "I've heard Crass, oh I've heard. You and that beast over there used to be lovey-dovey before. Don't think I haven't seen those passes you've made on each other."

            "Marlene, you're not making sense! Just calm down first."

            "You think I'll just stay mute while you to frolic behind my back!" she said, her MPPC completely charged. "Well you're mistaken. I'm being a good Terran and taking all of you _Rogues_ out," she said, spitting out the word _Rogues_ like venom.

            "Marlene!" Crass said. She fired.

***

            "How're its readings?"

            "Blood pressure, salinity, blood sugar and metabolism are normal. Bio-signature inaccuracy is below 0.0001%. Alpha and beta brainwaves are within normal range. Radiation is a bit higher then normal, but its contained."

            "What about energy readings?"

            "Energy dropped by 50% after the attack, but was recovered nearly instantly. I think that it will be able to independently recharge without the umbilical chord."

            "You're just waiting to let it loose, aren't you?"

            "Permission to speak freely, Admiral Molotov?"

            "Permission granted."

            "I had thought it was ready when we first tested it on the alleged _Rogue's_ meteor."

            "Well, with this signature, I certify it ready for field testing. Launch it in its first mission within next week."

            "Sir!" the scientist said, and left the Admiral. The Admiral sent the document to the bureaucracy to handle the rest of the paperwork.

            "I'll finally have you, Mr. Crass Fisheye!" the Admiral thought angrily to himself. Who would have ever thought that the rebel leader was under _his direct command_? And for _two years_. Admiralty was sure to demote him, so this new M2 weapon had to eliminate them to redeem his reputation.

            He went back into his mountain of folders containing Intelligence flukes to see what else he had overlooked about the _Rogues_.

***

            The _X_ was eerily quiet. It seemed as if there was no one there.

            "Marlene…" Crass sobbed. He had quickly activated his HES's space mode and stopped Marlene from killing everyone. The only damage that happened was there was a momentous concussion that raked the ship and its contents.

            "Why Crass? Why'd you save them?" she pleaded, her HES deactiveted, followed by Crass.

            "I couldn't let you just kill them…"

            "So you're really one of them, eh?"

            "Yeah," he sobbed, seeing the obvious hurt in her eyes.

            "Then you'll understand when I do this," she said softly and wrapped his arms around him. "Crass?"

            "Yes?" he asked tenderly, moving a stray hair away from her face. He stared at her eyes, wishing this moment would never end.

            "I hate you!" she said acidly, and stabbed him in his gut with a knife that she had in her sleeve.

            "Marlene…" Crass said in disbelief, eyes bulging with the sudden onslaught of pain.

            "No!" Amy and Mark said. They ran up to the two and separated them. Mark grabbed Marlene and wrestled the knife from her. Amy put Crass on the ground.

            "Don't you die on me!" she said.

            "Amy?" Crass questioned.

            "Don't you leave me alone!"

            "But why? I've been gone for two years and been with someone else," he said confused. "Why would you care about me?"

            "Because when I married you, I said I would never leave your side…" she sobbed.

            "But…" he started. His eyes closed and he stopped breathing. The last thing he remembered seeing was that chapel that he had dreamed about so long ago.

            _I love you…_

            "Crass!" Amy said, crying uncontrollably. Renee finally got her nerves back and realized what had happened.

            "Come on Amy, he's not done for yet!" she said, rolling Crass to the side and opening the med-pack James had scurried to retrieve.

            "But…"

            "You said so yourself before, 'he's been through a hell of a lot worse.'" She paused for a few seconds, thinking back to two years ago, when she had shot down Crass.

            "Right," she said and did her best to assist her.

            "Have you no shame?" Mark said to Marlene, who was wriggling to get free.

            "Shut up!" she snapped.

            "And you were his lover, too!"

            "He was an enemy, just like you!" she said, and stepped on his foot. James was on top of her instantly and pinned her to the wall. Seymour came up to her with a battery and short-circuited her CORE module once again.

            "There, now she wont be any more trouble."

            "What do we do now, Joanna?" Mark asked.

            "We have to go on with the mission."

            "But what about Crass?"

            "If we don't take down this thing now, we're finished. Remember, all of us have to hit that satellite at the same time or it will all have been for nothing and Crass wont be the only thing we have to worry about."

            "I agree," Amy said. "The Crass I know wouldn't have us stop just for him."

            "Then that settles it. We'll go with the original plan, but we'll just have one unit for the ground team."

            "Right," everyone said.

            "Renee will stay here and work on Crass."

            "What about her?" Mark said, referring to the sedated Marlene.

            "Just drop her somewhere. She's caused enough pain," said Joanna, clearly taking back command.

            "Alright," he said. The _X_ lifted off and left Marlene on the ground. The ATT was deployed at its starting point and the mechanized unit at its own. The attack started at exactly midnight.

***

            "That's it, we got it," the ground team reported in.

            "We're done too," the Zoid and HEV unit replied. It was pathetic how quickly they had taken the base over. But then, this wasn't an area that the Terrans put much defense on anyway. Almost everything was automated and the devastating blast of a Gauss slug into a nearby generator took all the defenses out. The ground team met nearly no resistance; the only people they encountered were in the control room.

            "Hahahaa… just look at them squirm," Seymour said, making faces at the tied up Terrans.

            "Quit that" Joanna said. "We attack in 0130 hours, so keep a lookout," she said. Seymour went to the control panel and locked onto the target.

            "Whoah…" he said. The targeting computer got a visual on it, and what he saw was nothing like what he expected. "Its so big…"

            It was no station. That was a research complex. It had solar arrays at least 500 feet long. It was probably as large as the old ZBC satellite (without including the station's solar arrays).

            "Joanna, the Blitz team, Harry's and Naomi's team, and the Desert Foxes have said that they've captured their stations," Molly reported. "The Hell's Hounds had to retreat."

            "That's okay, they had the hardest station to capture anyway." Time flew as the moment they had been waiting for had almost arrived.

            "Tell them it is time to synchronize." Joanna ordered. The message was given and they all converted to a standard clock to determine when to fire. "T-minus 30" it counted down.

            "Why would it need those solar panels?" Seymour suddenly blurted out.

            "Yeah… they do have that really big generator, right?"

***

            Admiral Molotov went into the lab. He had never seen the experiment himself, but he knew what it was capable of doing. The only thing he didn't like was that it used the violet wavelengths of the electromagnetic spectrum.

            "Admiral Molotov. M2 is ready to see you," the scientist said excitedly.

            "Is he, eh?" 

The scientist led him to a room with heavy locks. Door by door, he could see the defenses getting more and more powerful. _It must be really strong if they need all this. Not even the treasury has a safe this strong._

            The last door had a picture on it. It was a cute little cat-like thing floating in the air. It was an artist's composite of what M2's ancestor looked like.

            "Admiral Molotov," the scientist eagerly said, referring to the dark shape in front of him. "It would like you to meet _Mew Two_." Lights illuminated the creature and revealed a light-purple humanoid-like shape. It was covered with equipment that seemed to look like armor. 

            "We needed all that power to keep these things working?"

            "Yes, sir. The spionic repressors need a lot of power to repress all the spionic energy that Mew Two has. Otherwise, he could do some serious damage. Remember, the test fire was just _Mew Two's_ weakest spionic attack."

            "Well, Mew Two. It's a pleasure to meet you."

            _The pleasure is all mine, Admiral Molotov_, something said in his head.

            "Who was that?" Molotov said, scared.

            "That was Mew Two. He also has the Xi'an's ability to telekinetically communicate."

            "I see." A Terran invader had discovered what seemed to be the remains of the ancestor of the Xi'an's in one of their Home Worlds. It was determined that the ancestors were much more powerful than the Xi'an, but were more submissive. After many failed attempts to clone the creature with some of its RNA, they tried fusing it with human DNA, which seemed to react. The Terran government, afraid that it might become uncontrollable, ordered that it be carried out in the most remote sector of Terran space possible.

            Alarms started going off.

***

            "3… 2… 1," the clock chimed. "Now," Joanna said and Seymour fired. On screen, five other aquamarine orbital defense lasers struck the station with their own. The areas hit by the lasers became white-hot and the station exploded.

***

Yay… Molotov is finally perished. I didn't really like that mangy little mutt. Did you?

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


	14. Epilogue

Here Without You, Baby 

Epilogue

By: Sci-Fi Raptor

Disclaimer: I don't own Zoids or Battletech/Mechwarrior

~

            "That's my Amy!" I said cheerfully, and raised her up like a mother would hold up her baby (under the armpits) and started spinning around again. Both of us just kept on spinning until I lost my balance, and landed on top of her. Luckily, my HES had retracted, and she was still in that soft patch of sand.

"You know what I've always wanted to do with you Amy?"

"I think I have a slight clue…" I lowered my head to hers, and she closed her eyes, and wrapped her arms around my head.

"Crass?"

***

"Four…"

***

"Yeah?"

***

"Three"

***

"I've never told you this before, but…"

***

"Two"

***

"I love you"

***

"One"

***

            "Amy!" Crass said, getting up in a jolt. He looked around and saw a white room. He was in surgical scrubs, and had a gauss wrapped on his stomach. Come to think of it, that part hurt of him hurt…

            "Crass!" Amy said, running into the room. "You're awake!" she said cheerfully, the apprehension dissolved from her face.

            "What happened?"

            "Well… you got stabbed"

            "What? You stabbed me?!"

            "No, no, no…"

            "I mean, you just shot the Xi'an, and there we were, about to make out for once."

            "Huh?"

            "Don't you remember? The Zoid tornament?"

            "Wait a second…" she laughed, realizing what he was talking about. "You think that we just finished that Zoid tournament with the Blitz team and the Xi'an pilot?"

            "Yeah…" he said, thinking she was loosing her mind. She had a big smile on her face. She sat next to him and planted a kiss on his forehead. "What was that for?"

            "I'm seriously worried that you'll never get to use this great brain of yours, with all these fits of amnesia that you're having."

            "Amnesia. What are you talking about? The only time I had amnesia was when I first came here."

            "Actually, this is your third time…" she said, sweat dropping.

            "No way. I don't remember that." She sighed in defeat.

            "Just get well soon," she said, embracing his head. "Your unit misses you."

            "What unit?" Crass said, his voice muffled by her chest.

            "You'll find out. In time," she got up and headed for the door.

            "Hey, where are you going?"

            "Well, someone _reliable_ has to give you a sponge bath…" she winked.

            "Oh," he said. "_Oh…"_ A smile grew on his face. Then it suddenly grew pale when Amy was about to get up. "Don't go yet," he said in a scared way.

            "Okay," she said, and held onto his hand. He was staring into her eyes for a long time, his face getting whiter and his hands getting colder. But it was like he was looking past her, but she was the only one there.

            "Crass?" she finally said. He looked like he had seen a ghost.

            "I-I'm fine he said reluctantly, you can go now." He suddenly looked like he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. She gave his hand a squeeze and got up.

            "How is he?" Renee asked Amy once they were out of his hearing range.

            "He has amnesia. _Again_."

            "Oh. That's bad. I think I should do an MRI on him just in case."

            "Yeah, that would be a big help. Thanks Renee," Amy said, walking past her.

            "Wait a second, where are you going now?"

            "Like I told him, I'm gonna give him a sponge bath."

            "You were serious…"

~

            It was a four days since Amy had given Crass the sponge bath, and his spirits seemed a little better. Amy was sitting next to Crass, talking about their recent endeavors (which he had completely forgotten about) when Renee burst in. She had taken the MRI on Crass' brain and seemed to have urgent news.

            "Amy, could you please step outside for a few minutes?"

            "What's up? Is there anything wrong?"

            "Of course not," she said, her face very nervous.

            "Its alright, Renee, you don't have to hide it from me," Crass said, reading between the lines.

            "Its really not that serious, Crass. Just a little surgery…"

            "Surgery?!" Amy exclaimed. "Then it must be _very_ serious."

            "Well, I don't think that Crass should-"

            "Its all right Renee. I know about the tumor," Crass said naturally.

            "Tumor?" Amy said bewildered.

            "How did you?"

            "I also know that it is malignant and that I have eight years left," Crass said detached.

            "What?" Amy said, on the verge of tears. "This is a joke, right?" Amy said, looking into Renee's eyes for reassurance. When she found none, she looked at Crass. "But… but I just found you!" she pleaded. She held his hand in between her's and started tearing. And then he said something that sent chills down her spine: _As long as you survive, this will be worth it._

            "Crass, what are you talking about?" she said, willing it all away.

            "I'm saying, if I have to die so that you can save us all, I will have no regrets."

            "What?"

~

Of course the story isn't over! But you can see it if you guys put life into the fic (JUST ASK!!!) the third and final part of the story will be soo f*cked up, you'll be even more confused then now!

Questions? Comments? Send them to yarft@yahoo.com 


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